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WARRINGTON" PEN-PORTRAITS 



A COLLECTION OF 



PERSONAL AND POLITICAL REMINISCENCES 



FROM 1848 TO 18TG, 



FROM THE WRITINGS OF 

WILLIAM S. ''rOBINSON. 

w 



WITH MEMOIR, AND EXTRACTS FROM DIARY AND LETTERS 
NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. 





,w OF COhjQ S. 



BOSTON; 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY MRS. W. S. ROBINSON, 

41-45 Franklin Street. 

1877. 



F6^ 



Copyright, 1877, 
By MRS. W. S. ROBINSON. 



Stereoiyfied and Printed by 

Rand, Avery, and Company, 

IJJ Franklin Street, 

Boston. 



TO 

THE PEOPLE, 

IN WHOM " WAI4RINGT0N ' BELIEVED AND FOR WHOM HE LABORED, 
AS WELL AS TO 

THEIR LEADERS, 

WHOM HE CENSURED AND CRITICISED. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

INTEODUCTION ix 

MEMOIR. 

CHAP. 

I. Parentage and Boyhood 1 

n. Youth 15 

III. Manhood 25 

IV. Free-Soil Editor 35 

V. Free-Soil Editor {Continued) 53 

VI. " W^VRRINGTON " LETTERS 78 

VTl. Clerk of the Massachusetts House of Kepresenta- 

TIVES 102 

VIII. Butler and Butlerism 130 

IX. The Successful Man . 149 

X. In Memoriam 167 

PEN-PORTEAITS. 

I. The Free-Soil Party 183 

II. The FuGiTrvE-SL.4.VE L.vw 189 

III. The AVhigs and the Coalition 198 

IV. Workings of the Fugitive-Slave Act in Massachu- 

setts 20G 

V. The Know-Nothing and Straight-Eepublic^vn Parties, 214 

VI. Antislavery Movement 227 

VTI. John Brown and President Lincoln .... 237 

Vni. In War Toie 253 

IX. Jubilee Days 280 

X. Results of President Lincoln's Death .... 304 
XI. Action in Massachusetts from 1868 to 1871 . . . 322 
XII. Political Situation in 1872-1873; and "Warrington" 

abroad 354 

Xni. The Situation in 1874-1875 380 

XIV. Free-Soil Leaders 400 

XV. Brief Biographies .... ... 406 

XVI. Brief Biographies (Continued) 473 

XVII. Brief Biographies (Continued) 517 

XVIII. The Woman Question . 547 

APPENDIX 565 

INDEX 581 

V 



INTKODUCTION. 



Il^TEODUOTIOI^. 



BY F. B. SANBORN. 



I HAVE complied willingly "with the request 'of Mrs. Rob- 
inson for a few pages introductory to her full and interesting 
Memoir of our dear friend, and the friend of every good 
cause, William S. Robinson ; though it would have been 
more appropriate for some older acquaintance, who had 
known him from boyhood, to undertake this friendly task. 
My own intimacy with him began in his native town of Con- 
cord, soon after I went there to live, in 1855 ; and conse- 
quently covered but about twent}' of his fifty active and 
useful j-ears. He had been a journalist for sixteen of those 
years when I first met him ; and he was in the full maturitj' 
of his talents then, though neither so distinguished nor so 
powerful as he afterwards became. Although I must have 
seen him earlier, my first distinct recollection of him is at 
the "melon-party" of which Mrs. Robinson speaks, given 
by Mrs. Thoreau, the mother of Henry Thoreau, one evening 
in September, 1855. It was the custom of the Thoreaus 
then to raise fine melons in their garden, and once a year to 
assemble their friends at a reception, where the melons that 
Henry and his father had grown formed the principal feast. 
On this occasion, I recall the small and slightly stooping 
figure of \Yilliam Robinson among the guests. His jesting 
manner and ready laugh were in sufficient contrast with the 



X INTRODUCTION. 

grave, bearing of bis scboolmate, the poet-naturalist of the 
Concord woods and waters. But tlie two men were alike in 
their courageous support of unpopular opinions, their neg- 
lect of the cheap prizes of life, and in the steadiness of their 
friendship for those to whom they were allied. 

" They were of a lineage 
That each for each doth fast engage." 

- I did not fairly come to know Robinson, however, until 
we met frequently, from 1858 onward, at the Bird Club in 
Boston, of which he was one of the earliest and most con- 
stant members. He used to say that he meant to earn 
enough b}' his'" Warrington " letters, which then began to 
be famous, to pay for his weekly club dinners. But the}- did 
more than this : thoy made him so much a power in Massa- 
chusetts, that when the time came, in 1860, for his table- 
companions of the Bird Club to take control of political 
affiiirs in this Commonwealth, he was found to be among the 
most important of their number. lie entered, with Sumner, 
Andrew, Wilson, Bird, the Howes, Claflin, Wright, Stearns, 
and the rest, into that council of friends, w^hich, until it was 
broken by " time and chance which happeneth to all," gave 
wise and brave direction to the polic}' of Massachusetts both 
in state and national affairs. This unrecognized cabinet, 
composed of both official and unofficial persons, came into 
power with Gov. Andrew in 18G0-G1 ; and its last powerful 
stroke was the defeat of Butler for governor in 1871. In 
the ten intervening years, the pen of "Warrington" was 
as potent as any single influence, except the great soul of 
Sumner and the great heart of Andrew, in maintaining the 
steady course of Massachusetts on all grave issues. 

Something of this potency yet survives in the pages here 
selected from the mass of Robinson's journalistic writings, 
though much of the force then felt has disappeared with the 
emergency that called it forth. The wit, the sagacity, the 
broad humor, and ctrong sense, — above all, the dauntless 
independence of the man, — these all shine forth, and may 



INTRODUCTION. xi 

be read in future j-ears. But that which has passed away, 
never to return, is the ardor of the generous contention for 
freedom and a broader national life ; the common impulse, 
thrilling from man to man as by an electric shock, when we 
stood side b}' side in the ranks, giving and taking blows, 
and more eager for the victory of truth than for the glory or 
the spoils of conquest. This must be to others but a dim 
tradition, growing fainter with time : to us it is a warm and 
cherished memor}-, which the passing 5'ears will seek to 
efface, but cannot obliterate. Mrs. Robinson has well pre- 
served the spirit, and many of the incidents, of that long 
warfare with evil ; and the invincible, unassuming courage 
and resource of her husband during that whole period gleam 
out in her narration as we saw them then, but with details of 
self-denial and self-sacrifice that are now first made public. 

It was in this period that the reminiscences of Gov. Bul- 
lock begin ; and they may here be fitly introduced. He 
says, — 

"My relations with Mr. Robinson were intimate during 
four years (while I Avas speaker of the House of Represen- 
tatives, he being all that time its clerk) ; and his solid, 
personal qualities made upon me an enduring impression. I 
found the temper of his nature amiable, generous, and con- 
fiding bej'ond any thing I had conceived from his writings. 
He was far more capable of sustained friendship than many 
persons whose manners are, on the surface, more attractive 
than his. I never knew him to do an ungenerous thing, or 
to approve a mean act. Acquaintance brought out a broad 
and deep humor which his appearance did not indicate to a 
stranger. He had the laugh of a large-souled man, which 
came out of the heart, and carried magnetism into his con- 
versation. He abounded in wit of a pleasant flavor. From 
standard authors, and from the transient literature of the 
day, with a quickness which has rarely been surpassed, he 
extracted all the sweetest graces ; and, under his nicelj'- 
shaded perception, they kindled into soft and mellow light. 



xii INTRODUCTION. 

A familiar friend could not fixil to observe the two sides of 
his character ; for, while his life was apparentl}' rather a 
stern and severe one, in social intercourse he was one of the 
best interpreters I ever knew of the finer qualities of a 
humorist. Though he was somewhat abrupt in manner, 
delicac}- of feeling was his most striking characteristic. I 
mention this particularl}', because he was thought by many 
to be mood}-, or even cynical. He did like satire ; and an}' 
man who deals much in that seldom gets credit for the better 
parts of his disposition. Mr. Robinson's lot was not one 
of ease, but, on the contrary, it was one of constant and 
miscellaneous intellectual struggle for support ; and I take 
pleasure in bearing m}' testimon}- to the serenit}' with which 
he bore it, — without discontent, without env}' and suspicion, 
always justl}' towards others more favorably situated. 

" He had signally an honest mind. There was no sham 
in his own make ; and he never practised sophistr}' or char- 
latanry, or tolerated it in others. His was not the custom 
of saying ' Yes ' for the sake of assenting ; nor of sa3'ing 
' No,' imless he thought and felt it. Without bias, he criti- 
cised right and left the opinions and actions of his friends ; 
and he yielded free approval to those of his opponents, if 
his judgment so determined. He looked for the merits of 
men and things ; and mere title, distinction, fame, weighed 
with him verv little. I recall numerous instances of the 
entire indei)endcnce and uprightness of his opinions at a 
time in which most men surrendered their individuality with- 
out reflection to the popular tidal wave. Although radically 
attached to the admhiistration party, he criticised Sumner as 
freely as he criticised Vallandigham ; and many a time 
during the war he expressed to me his s^-mpath}' with those 
whose personal rights and liberties he thought were undul}' 
infringed under the shadow of the ' war power,' as it was 
called. And his heart was as honest as his intellect. To 
say that he was be3ond corruption is saying little for him. 
He worked hard all his days, and never wanted for his labor 
more than it was worth. I do not know anybody who has 



INTRODUCTION. xiii 

done contentedly so much literary work for such moderate 
pay. In the ■war-time, in which all salaries were raised 
under the general inflation, when Ave came to that of the 
clerk of the House, I fixed upon a sum which could easil}^ 
have been carried ; but he insisted upon lower figures, which, 
he said, were all the office was justl}^ entitled to ask. He 
was a model man for public economy, and could not be 
tempted from the simplicity and purity of living which 
marked him to the end. 

" Intellectually, Mr. Robinson was both broad and acute. 
His mind went out after principles, passing by technical 
methods. I never could induce hira to pay much reverence 
to parliamentarj^ authorities. His Manual, published two 
years ago, really contains all the essentials of parliamentary 
law ; and it ought to come into general use. It is a book of 
principles, and is sufficient to suggest all the necessary forms ; 
but, because it deals in principles instead of forms, I doubt 
if it is so popular as it ought to be. His wise discernment 
and his retentive memory were conspicuous in his studies and 
reading, and made him an authority within the range of his 
knowledge, which was remarkable for his opportunities. 
His reading was miscellaneous, covering wisely the best of 
modern authors in the English language ; and he was 
especiall}' eclectic in all that he preserved and treasured from 
his reading. He was a natural and pure writer, — vigorous, 
penetrating, and incisive. Considering that he was a born 
critic, and that he indulged his ply with like freedom towards 
those whom he favored and towards those whom he censured, 
we must all of us acknowledge, that an aim for justice and 
truth predominated in his writings to a degree uncommon in 
the compositions of criticism. I do not think it was known, 
save by a few of his friends, how well-read he was ; and 
certainl}' very few readers could throw aside the chaff, and 
appropriate the real grain, more rapidly than he did. 

" Mr. Robinson has seemed to me one of the pioneers of 
the INDEPENDENT PRESS. In high part}" times, he was one 
of the earliest, most pronounced, and most fearless of all our 



sir INTRODUCTION. 

independent newspaper-writers. The obligation of free ex- 
pression of his thoughts he deemed superior to the fixncied 
restraints of friendship ; and, though this rule may seem 
unamiable to a limited number of interested persons, the 
practice of it is essential to free and independent journalism. 
Before Robinson's da}-, we had no well-known journalist in 
this State who made the venture which he has so success- 
fully made. He did not forbear to publish what he thought 
of the acts and opinions of a public man from fear of meet- 
ing him at a dinner-table the next week, nor from that other 
and more abject fear of party discipline. An impending elec- 
tion did not shut off from his vision justice, trath, or duty. 
In his conversation and in his published writings, we had an 
interpretation of ' reform within the party.' If he could have 
lived a few years longer, I have no doubt that he would have 
maintained in still higher style than before the position of 
one of the advance-guard of the independent press, — that 
term of so much reproach, and 3'et of so much honor. ' ' 

An earlier and more intimate friend, Mr. Fuaxcis "W. 
Bird, has communicated a few of those recollections which 
throng to the chambers of memory when the name of Rob- 
inson and the days of the antislavery conflict are men- 
tioned. Mr. Bird writes, — 

" Somewhat over forty j-ears ago, I first met William S. 
Robinson in his brother's printing-office in Dedham, — he a 
lad in his teens, I ten j^ears his senior. Ten jears at our 
ages then seemed to separate us widely. But he soon after 
engaged in pursuits which stimulated mental activit}- : I 
drifted into a condition Avhich checked and dwarfed it. 
And so it happened, that, when we were brought together 
ten or fifteen years later, he had come up b}- m}' side ; and, 
from that time to the du}' of his death, ' we clamb the hill 
thegither.' It was hard climbing. Young men who joined 
the antislavery' movement in its earliest days, and especially 
those who left the Whig party and acted politically against 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

slavery, met a proscription commercial, political, and social, 
of the bitterness and intensitj' of which few now can form 
any conception. Robinson earl}- chose his lot with the 
friends of freedom ; and from that da}' to his last, reckless 
of personal conseqnences, he devoted himself to the righting 
of the wrong, and to the most fearless discussions of public 
men and measures. 

" His life, like all lives whose record men do not willingl}' 
let die, was one of steady toil and straggle. Unsparing 
critic and iconoclast, wielding a pen devoted to the unmask- 
ing of hypocris}' and shams and knaveiy, ' to razing out 
rotten opinion which writes men down after their seeming,' 
he aroused antagonisms where eas3'-going men would gloss 
over prejudices and bigotries and knaveries. Men who knew 
him slightly thought him malignant : we who knew him well 
knew that ever}- utterance of his was the expression of the 
sincerest and profoundest conviction of truth and duty ; 
that, vigorous as was the bow, there was no venom in the 
shaft ; that in all the ink which flowed from his fertile pen 
there never mingled a drop of malice or unkindness. 

" How my heart warms as I think of the brave and true 
men who led the sacramental hosts through the long struggle 
which placed Massachnsetts openly, actively, and perpetually 
on the side of freedom, and won their final victory in placing 
John A. Andrew in the chair of Winthrop and Hancock ! 
There were giants on the earth in those days. Omitting the 
living whom Massachusetts delights to honor still, — not, 
perhaps, with the offices which have come too much to be 
distributed by the ward-room politicians, but with the honor 
and reverence which Massachusetts always awards to high 
qualities and great services, — I may properly recall the names 
of a few of that noble army of heroes who led in those battles 
of freedom, and have gone to their reward, — Stephen C. 
Phillips, Horace Mann, Theodore Parker, Erastus Hopkins, 
Charles Allen, Edward L. Keyes, Seth Webb, jun., James 
W. Stone, Burlingame, Andrew, Sumner, Howe, Wilson. 
Of these and with these was Eobinson, consulted and trusted 



XVi INTRODUCTION. 

as one of our wisest and best. Whether there was counsel 
to be taken, or work to be clone, the circle was imperfect 
without him. 

" Robinson wielded no mercenary pen. During a portion 
of his active life he held office, in which he did fiiithful work, 
and received fair pa}'. For other work as a journalist he 
received moderate compensation, never large ; but few know, 
none so well as I, how vast the amount of work he did for 
which he received and expected no reward but the conscious- 
ness of dut}' done. I was associated with him for years in 
these labors, and I know that his anon3-mous and unpaid work 
often equalled his professional and public work. Ilis whole 
life was almost literall}- a daily struggle for his dail}- bread ; 
but no consideration of personal gain ever tempted liim to 
any act not in accordance with liis sincerest convictions, 
and no fear of personal sacrifice or of pecuniar}' loss cv€r 
deterred him from doing brave battle for every good cause. 

" ' The fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they 
live forever?' One by one our honored leaders and loved 
friends have gone, until more are with them than with us. 
"We miss them all. Robinson's place, the last made vacant, 
most freshly reminds us of our loss. We miss him from our 
grave councils on public affairs ; from tlie cheerful gatherings 
for good fellowship which he so mucli enjoyed and inspired ; 
from the Club, where, for twent3'-five 3'ears, men of thought 
and men of action met to take sweet counsel together, and 
strengthen each other for the battle of life. Their memories 
remain ; and, now that they are beyond the reach of mortal 
sight, good omens cheer us, maul}' purposes inspire us, from 
the bright track of tlieir faithful, fruitful lives." 

It is needless for me to point out how well the writer of 
this Memoir, the editor of this volume, has performed her 
affectionate task. None had a better right to do it, or could 
have done it better. To the picture she has given of lier 
husband a few touches may be added ; but hardly a feature 
that she has drawn need be shaded b}' criticism, so discern- 
ing are the eyes of affection. 



INTRODUCTION. xvii 

Our satirist and friend was not a commanding person ; nor 
can lie be called great, though he had some of the least com- 
mon elements of greatness. A little more reverence and 
reserve would have graced his character, and softened the 
asperit}' of his pen ; a little more enthusiasm would have 
brought him nearer to the ideal standard. He had a strong 
Saxon sense, not too much refined, such as Defoe and Frank- 
lin showed ; and he belonged in their class, rather than 
among moralists and idealists. He was of the sturdy, jest- 
ing, Av arm-hearted, reliable people, who keep the middle way 
of life, not much disturbed b}^ visions or ambitions. Of such 
sturdy and level qualities were the plain people of New 
England and of the mother-countr}- : thej' stood b}' their col- 
ors ; the}' minded their own business ; and what was the 
achievement of one was the profit and gloiy of all. Of this 
sort was "William Robinson : he asked little of the world, 
was content with his lot, expected to work hard, to " do citi- 
zen's dut}'," speak his mind freelj', stand b}' his friends, 
remind his enemies that the}' were vulnerable ; in short, to 
make one in that bus}', free-born, progressi\e multitude 
which the American people are. He neither sought nor 
valued distinction ; nor did he avoid singularity or reproach 
in the line of his duty. As Emerson said of Theodore 
Parker, he was one "who does not in generous company say 
generous things, and in mean company base things, but says 
one thing, now cheerfully, now indignantly, and always 
because he must." Alas that we shall hear his voice no 
longer ! 

COKOOBD, May 1, 1877. 



MEMOIR. 



** O friend ! my bosom said, 
Through thee alone the sky is arched, 
Through thee the rose is red ; 
All things through thee take nobler form, 
And look beyond the earth ; 
The mill-round of our fate appears 
A sun-path in thy worth. 
Me too thy nobleness has taught 
To master my despair ; 
The fountains of my hidden life 
Are through thy friendship fair." 

Emekson. 



lEMOIR OF "WAEEIN6T0N." 



BY MRS. W. S. EOBINSON. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAEENTAGE AJSTD BOYHOOD. 

(1S18-1837.) 

We can never do more than approximate to the truth about the life of any per- 
son, big or little; and this limitation must be borne in mind, for no man or woman 
ever yet lived who was known to anybody else, — perhaps nobody who was ever 
known to himself or herself with any degree of accuracy; and, if Fronde and 
Macaulay have made mistakes, there are plenty of bookmakers who will correct 
their errors.— Waeeington. 

Of the many distinguished writers who have from time to 
time made Concord in Massachusetts their residence, it is a 
curious fact that "Warrington" (William S. Robinson) is 
the only one widely known, with one exception, who was 
"native and to the manner born" of that rare old town. 
The exception is Henry David Thoreau, "Warrington's" 
contemporary and schoolmate. His ancestors had lived there 
for two generations on the father's and mother's side ; both 
families having moved there just in time to take their share 
in the stirring incidents of the Revolution. Though Mr. 
Robinson would have been one of the first to ' ' smile at the 
claims of long descent," 3-et, for the sake of those who like to 
know the ancestry of a man in whom they are interested, it 
will be well to say that he could trace his origin through five 
generations of honest tanners, shoemakers, and hatters, to a 
forefather whose will is still in existence, and to an ances- 
tress whose strong and noble character has been transmitted 

1 



2 MEMOIR OF 

to numberless descendants, and is easil}- seen in that of the 
subject of this memoir, the most eminent of them all.^ 

The Robinson famil}' were of "SVestford in Massachusetts : 
the Cogswells (on the mother's side) were of Boston. The 
families intermarried at the same time (in 1773) on both sides, 
and continued to do so. Thus Mr. Robinson's parents had a 
common ancestr}', were own cousins, and also what is called 
" double cousins ; " and the record of one famil}- is substan- 
tiall}- the record of botli. The Robinsons seem to have been 
made up of conflicting elements ; for we find a non-resistant 
and a brave fighter dividing the honors of the familv name 
between them. In lGo9, one William Robinson, a Quaker, 
was arrested with other Quakers, as he came from Salem to 
Charlestown ferry, by a compan}' of people, and, after some 
scoffing and mocking examinations, was sent to prison : 
there he was searched, and his journal of places where he 
had been was taken awa}'. Shortly after, he was hanged 
on Boston Common, and all for opinion's sake. 

Lieut. -Col. John Robinson,^ who came from Westford on the 
19th of April, 1775, to serve in the regiment of minute-men 
under Col. William Prescott, was without doubt the brother 
of William S. Robinson's grandfather, and of one of his 
grandmothers. "This brave colonel," as Dr. Riplc}' calls 
him, when the command was given to " march into the 
middle of the town to defend their homes, or die in the 
attempt," was requested by Major Buttrick " to accompany 
him, and lead the soldiers in double file to the scene of 
action." History tolls us how well the "rank and file" 
were led on that eventful da}-. The women of the lamily 
were not idle; for while their husbands were away at "the 
Bridge," fighting for the state and countr}-, one of them, Mr. 
Robinson's grandmother, at home alone, preparing food for 
the returning heroes, thought anxiously of the church near 
by, and its sacred vessels. She therefore went and got the 
silver communion-service from the adjoining meeting-house, 

1 See Appendix A. 

2 See Shattuck's History of Concord. 



''WARRINGTON." 3 

and buried it in the soap-barrel in her cellar, in the arch 
under a great chimnej' which is still standing ; and it staid 
there safe all through the fight. This same brave woman 
threatened to shoot two British soldiers, who, after the first 
fight, had made their way, famished and footsore, over the 
hill behind her house. They were so hungiy and tired, and 
begged so piteousl}' for something to eat, that she fed them 
instead. She would not let them in, being alone, but sup- 
plied them from the window, making them eat on the stoop 
outside the door. 

Concerning the Cogswell side of the familj', I am able to 
quote from a paper written by Mr. Eobinson in 1871 for the 
use of the " Social Circle," a club of gentlemen in Concord, 
of which his grandfather was the founder and the last sur- 
vivor of the original twelve members : — 

" Emerson Cogswell, of Welsh descent, was the son of Emerson 
and Mary (Pecker) Cogswell. Emerson, senior, was a tanner, who 
carried on business near the stone bridgte in Ipswich, Mary Pecker 
was the daughter of James and Bridget Pecker. Pecker was a wharf- 
inger in Boston. [There was a sister of Mary Pecker, named Susannah, 
who kept a ' pastry scliool,' and lived to a great age. I have seen 
some patriotic verses written by her against tlie use of tea in the pre- 
Revolutionary days.] I do not know when Emerson Cogswell, senior, 
died ; but Mary, his wife, lived in Concord many years a widow, with 
her son Emerson, and kept school in the house, which her grand- 
children attended. John Cogswell was the first principal inhabitant 
of Ipswich. 'The History of Essex' (Chebacco) contains all that I 
know of the Cogswell family, including a reference to the patent 
granted to Lord Humphrey Cogswell in 1447. John Cogswell's son 
William married Mary, daughter of Eev. John Emerson of Gloucester; 
and this brought the name of Emerson into the family.^ 

1 The Eev. John Emerson of Gloucester was born in 1C25 in 
England, and was the son of Thomas Emerson of Ipswicli, from whom 
:Mr. II. W. Emerson is also descended, through another son (or grand- 
son), Eev. Joseph Emerson of Wells, Me., and Mendon, Mass. Eev. 
John Emerson was settled in Gloucester in 1663, after graduating at 
Harvard College in 1G56. His wife was Euth Symonds of Ipswich, 
daughter of Samuel S.ymonds, a kinsman of John Winthrop, and him- 
self deputy-governor of Massacliusets. Mary Emerson, born in 1605, 
grand-daughter of Samuel Symonds and of Thomas Emerson, married 
William Cogswell, son or grandson of John Cogswell, who was a 



4 MEMOIR OF 

"Emerson Cogswell moved from Boston to Concord during the 
Revolution. 'Shattuck's Ilistory,' p. 357, mentions liira as a lieu- 
tenant in 1778, under Capt. Thomas Brown of Lexington. On p. 353 
he is also mentioned as a second lieutenant of the Concord company, 
under the organization made in February, 1776. In 1770, the com- 
pany was employed at Cambridge, and in 1778, for six weeks, in Rhode 
Island. So Cogswell had military employment very soon after he 
moved to Concord ; and was a patriot, and no Tory. He was one of 
the originators of the Club; i and he and the father of Judge Fay (the 

wealthy London merchant settled in Ipswich. AVilliani S. Robinson 
was descended, therefore, from Thomas Emerson and John Cogswell, 
who were both ancestors of Mr. Ralph "Waldo Emerson. The latter 
took his middle name, Waldo, from an ancestor, Cornelius "Waldo of 
Chelmsford, whose daughter IJcbecca married Edward Emerson about 
lf)'J5. Rebecca "Waldo was the grandHlaughtcr of John Cogswell; her 
mother, the wife of Cornelius Waldo, being Hannah Cogswell, the 
sister or aunt of "William Cogswell, who married Mary Emerson of 
Gloucester. A sister of this Mary (Emerson) Cogswell married Sanmel 
Phillips, and was the ancestress of inany persons of that distinguished 
name. Thus, by the curious intertwining of pedigrees, " "Warrington " 
was connected by descent, as he was by talent, with the families of 
Emerson, riiillips, Cogswell, and others of the clerical or "Brahmin" 
class in New England. I take the Emerson Cogswell who married 
Mary Pecker to have been the grandson of IMary Emerson of Gloucester. 
— F. B. S. 

1 This club was originally a committee of public safety, and after- 
wards became the "Social Circle." It has been kept alive to this 
day. The lirst meetings of this club were held at the house of Mr. 
Cogswell, with closed doors ; and no woman was admitted. The 
women were allowed to make all the preparations for a sumptuous 
supper; and, if any thing was wanted during the feast, it was handed 
through the half-open door. Even when the original number had 
dwindled down to only Mr. Cogswell and Mr. Fay, this rigid exclusion 
of the prescribed sex was kept up at Mr. Cogswell's house at least; 
" for mother" (says Mrs. Davis, to whom Mr. Robinson refers, and who 
is my authority) " was sent off to bed, so as to be out of the way." It 
has, however, leaked out that thej' did nothing more mysterious than to 
eat, singsongs, and tell stories; ;Mr. Cogswell being the story-teller, and 
Mr. Fay the singer. This club was revived before ^Ir. Cogswell's death, 
Dr. Ripley being one of its leaders under the new re'ijime. "It now 
numbers twenty-live members," says "W. S. R. in 1S71, "who meet at 
each other's houses weekly, during the autumn, winter, and spring." 
"Whether the custom of sending the wife of the " receiving " member to 
bed, to "be out of the way," still holds, I have not thought it wise to 
inquire. The oldest member at present is Dr. Josiah Bartlett, w'ho was 
elected in 1822; and the second in seniority is Mr. R. "W. Emerson, 
elected about forty years ago. — H. II. R. 



''WARRINGTON." 5 

late S. P. P. Fay of Cambridge) were the two latest who survived, 
and met regulai'ly, and had good and satisfactory times together. Mr. 
Cogswell was the last survivor. 

"He went to Canada, in what year I cannot say, but probably after 
1790; for he took with him his son William, and my father, William 
Eobinson, who was born in 1776. They went to Canada in order 
to learn the art and mystery of making napped hats ; and Mr. Cogs- 
well is said to have made the first napped hats in this region. (Hats 
were made about 1830, on the ' Mill-Dam,' by Comfort Foster and 
others. My father worked there ; and I used to go to ancTfro across 
the Common with a dozen or fifteen hats strung over my shoulder, my 
mother being one of the trimmers.) They went in the winter with a 
sleigh and two horses. Once, in crossing a lake,i Mr. Cogswell, hear- 
ing the ice crack behind him, whipped up his horses, and got clear; 
but the team behind him went through, and was lost. He failed in 
business on account of the failure of one Brown, for whom he was 
'bound.' Brown fled to Western Virginia. Mr. Cogswell and Capt. 
Safford of Beverly went in pursuit of him on horseback, and found 
him in Wellsburg. They got some land of Brown ; but it never was 
of any value to Mr. Cogswell or to his descendants. It remains a 
part of my landed property de jure. I am willing to dispose of my 
share on the tenns Henry Thoreau was going to take Fair Plaven 
Cliffs for cultivation, — 'at the halves.' Mr. Cogswell was proba- 
bly absent man jMuonths. Mrs. Davis (now livmg in Concord), the 
widow of his son William, remembers when he and Safford came 
back with a pair of horses, and a sleigh loaded with furs, one Sunday 
in January, 1800. Meanwhile, an attachment had been put upon his 
property, and the doors closed. ' Grandfather said,' I quote from a 
letter to me, written by a daughter of Mrs. Davis, ' that he should 
not run away, nor have his doors closed by man,' and threw them 
open. On Monday, the officer, Major Hosmer,^ took him to jail, 
where he remained until Capt. Safford took his property, and settled 
the debts. The property remained in the Safford family until it went 
into its present hands. I was born in the old building,^ and remem- 
ber that my father paid the rent to John Safford of Beverly. The 
elm-tree at the corner of this building was planted by Mr. Cogswell. 
Mrs. Davis remembers seeing the buckets of specie with which the 
debt was settled by Safford. 

"Mrs. Davis says that Dr. Eipley boarded with him from the time 
he (Kipley) came to Concord (1778) to his marriage. There is a 
tradition that Cogswell fell out with Dr. Eipley, and finally refused 

1 No doubt Lake Champlain. — F. B. S. 2 sheriff of Middlesex. 
3 The "old block," as it is now called, which was a nice house in 
those days, and built to accommodate his numerous growing family. 



6 MEMOm OF 

any longer to hear him. Mrs. Davis remembers bearing him say that 
he wont to hear the doctor preach as long as he got any information. 
This, perhaps, implied that others went to hear him longer. I believe, 
however, that he and the doctor were on good terras personally ; and 
the doctor was a frequent visitor at the house. Mr. Cogswell read 
his Bible diligenth", and perhaps ostentatiously, as the people went by 
his house to meeting. He advised (probably coerced) his children, 
and all the members of his family, to go to meeting, no doubt trusting 
to their good sense to find out when the supply of information failed; 
and he enfoined upon John Robinson, my uncle, to remember the 
texts. ' If any of the children remained at home, it was his practice to 
keep them very quiet during meeting-time. They must either sit on 
their block and hear him read, or read their own books. But the 
children had to go to meeting usually, whether they all had bonnets 
to wear or not,' says Mrs. Davis. I have in my possession the Bible 
which I suppose is the one Mr. Cogswell read while the people went 
to meeting. It was given to me by my mother, and is a Dublin edi- 
tion of 1714. The best used parts of it are the New Testament and the 
Psalms. These parts bear the marks of a good deal of thumbing; 
whether by Mr. Cogswell, I cannot say: but I am quite sure, that, 
except for the purpose of this biography, I have not misused it. Mr. 
Cogswell died of consumption, and was buried in the old hill burying- 
ground. Dr. llipley attended the funeral ; and he said, if there ever 
was a good man, he thought Mr. Cogswell was one, though they 
differed in their religious views. 

" In person, Mr. Cogswell was portly, not to say fat ; so that his 
wife was obliged to buckle his shoes. He wore small-clothes, and 
went by the title of ' leftenant.' I recollect hearing my piother tell 
of people calling to inquire, 'Is Leftenant Cogsdill at home?' (Per- 
haps I may as well say here that the name of Cogswell is spelled with 
only one g, as in negro.) 

" Emerson Cogswell had three wives and fourteen children. Ilis first 
wife was Eunice llobinson; and Emerson Cogswell's sister Susanuah 
married my paternal grandfather, Jeremiah Kobinson. I have not 
the date of Mrs. Cogswell's (No. 1) death; but I suppose it was about 
1788; for Mr. Cogswell was not a man to make unnecessary delays, 
and his second marriage took place May 3, 1 789. The third wife — 
be patient — was Elizabeth Buttrick, widow of Nathan Buttrick of 
Concord,! ^^hose maiden name was Bateman. 

" Since this sketch was completed. I have received a letter from 
Mr. Heywood, the town-clerk of Concord, to whom I applied for 
information, who says, ' I find by the record that Emerson Cogswell 
died May 13, 1808, aged sixty-four; and the only office that I find 

1 ^lother of ilrs. Davia. 



''WARRINGTON." 7 

he held was that of hogreeve, probably on account of his second 
marriage ; ^ and that was in 1794. At that time, that office was con- 
sidered a good position.' The third marriage, Mr. Heywood should 
have said. I am glad to find that hogreeves were so highly esteemed 
in Concord. The uuinstructed intellect would have supposed the 
office of town-clerk or of selectman to be superior in dignity, if not 
usefulness. 

" The only additional item I am at present able to supply is the 
following, which I copy from the legislative resolves of 1789 : — 

On the Petition of Emerson Cogswell. 

Resolved, That Ephraim "Wood, Esq., administrator de bonis non on 
the estate of Eobert Cuming, Esq. (late of Concord, deceased), be and 
he hereby is authorized to give a deed of a small piece of land lying 
near Concord meeting-house, that Avas sold by John Cuming, Esq., 
former administrator on the estate of the said Robert Cuming, to the 
said Emerson Cogswell, the said Cogswell paying for the same accord- 
ing to agreement. 

Sent down for concurrence. 

SA3IUEL PniLLrPs, Jun., President. 

In the House of Representatives, 
Jan. 31, 1789. 
Approved : Read and concurred : 

John Hancock. Theodoke Sedgwick, Jun, Speaker." 

Mr. Robinson's ancestors on both sides seem to have 
esteemed truth and duty above the things of this world ; and, 
though the}' were people of what was then called good con- 
dition, I do not find a wealtlw person among them after 
1734. At the time of his birth, in 1818, the wheel of the 
family fortune had reached the lowest point in its descent ; 
so that it might be said he was born of a family in reduced 
fortunes, if it were b}' any means certain that the lack of 
money, and what it supplies, does in our country reduce the 
real fortunes of a family in those things which are, after all, 
the most desirable. 

Pilgrims to Concord, on their vfay to the homes of Emer- 
son and Alcott, after leaving the Unitarian church, where 
Dr. Ripley (grandfather by marriage of Mr. Emerson) 
preached, will pass on the right a block of old wooden 

1 It was considered a good joke in tliose old-fashioned times to put 
the new married man of the village into this oflSce at election-time. 



8 MEMOIR OF 

houses. In one of these houses, under the shadow of the 
elm-tree planted b}' his grandfather, Emerson Cogswell, 
"Warrington" — "William Stevens Kobinson — was born 
Dec. 7, 1818. Uis father was William Robinson, named, 
probably, for William Cogswell of Ipswich ; his mother, 
Martha Cogswell Robinson. He was the sixth and last 
child of his parents. "The first time I saw him," says a 
friend of his mother, whose kind eyes still look out over the 
sunny plains of Concord, " he was two years old, and came 
into m}- house with his mother, holding fast b}- her dress ; 
and he always went with her everywhere till he was a great 
bo}', preferring her compan}- to the rude plays and games 
of his schoolmates. For he was not like his brothers, or 
like other boj's, and never pla3-ed with them, but was always 
reading great books, or cutting little sticks of wood for his 
mother, alone in the back-yard. A good and obedient boy 
always, and looked as he did in after-life. He always kept 
his looks. His health was not robust, though he was never 
ill. His head was too large for his bod}- ; and no one 
thought he would live to be a man." 

He went to the town school in Concord, kept in the little 
brick schoolhouse, now an engine-house (opposite the Town 
Hall), — a "mixed school, where boys and girls studied 
Latin, and parsed Pope's ' Essay on Man ' together." ^ At 
this brick schoolhouse he acquired all the education that ever 
came to him from the recitation-room. Whatever other 
knowledge he gained was found in his reading and his con- 
tact with life and men ; for he never went to college. There 
was the " Catermy " (Concord Academy), as the boys of 
the brick schoolhouse used to call it, established by some 
of the parents who received better pa}- for their labor tlian 
that given to hatters and shoemakers ; but Mr. Robinson 
never went to it, his father being too poor to send him, even 
if he had desired to do so. The Latin grammar was taught 
in the town school in preference to the English, and " com- 

1 W. S. E. in 18G8. 



''WARRINGTON." 9 

position^ and the rule of three " were well drilled into the 
minds of the 3'oung learners. The art of composition was 
specially taught ; and in looking over the productions of Mr. 
Robinson and his sister, at the ages of eleven and thirteen, 
I am struck by the clearness of stjde and diction in the 
attempts of these young children. If " reading and writing 
come b}' nature," it is not much matter what methods are 
used. If the}' can be taught successfull}', the old Concord 
school of fortj'-five 3'ears ago had found out the secret. 

The following composition, written at thirteen years of 
age, is copied verbatim : — 

A SHORT SKETCH OF MY LIFE. 

I was born in Concord 7th of December 1818; and have resided in 
this town ever since there-fore a history of my life cannot be long 
or very interesting I went to Miss Hunts school 2 yrs and to Miss 
Harriet Moore's 1 yr. When 5 yrs old I went to Mr. Dinsmore in this 
school-house 1 year and -J- then to Mr. Forbush 1 year then to Mr. 
Jarvis ^ 1 year then to Mr Wood ^ 1 year then to Mr Merrill 1 year to 
Mr Graham* 1 yr to Mr Carter 3 months to Mr Clark 3 months to Mr 
Jackson 3 months and then to Mr Brown the pi'esent master Mr 
Dinsmore (now dead) had kept 1 year 6 months before I went to 
him. I believe he was liked very much Mr Forbush was very liberal 
with his ruler and was not liked very much by the Scholars. Mr Jar- 
vis was liked very well Mr. Wood also he was the one who first 
formed the Club ^ Mr Merrill was a good master Mr Graham was a 

1 When I was a little boy — oh! such a long time ago! — I got a silver 
medal, manufactured out of half a dollar, for the best "composition" 
at school. It was on this topic, ai^pointed by the master, — " Learning 
is better than house and land." It was an eloquent and convincing 
dissertation, and established the trutli of the proposition so fully and 
clearly, that I really believe, if the "composition" could be now 
published, there would not hereafter be any dispute as to the truth of 
it, "in the abstract." It was what they call a " cliucher." I only 
remember, however, the beginning, which consisted of the personal 
pronoun "I," and the verb "think." I have always held to the doc- 
trine which I then so clearly demonstrated, and have acted upon it: 
for, though I have little learning, I have less house; and my laud is 
nothing.— W. S. R. in 1859. 

2 Dr. Edward Jarvis. 3 Eev. Horatio Wood of Lowell. 
* Eev. John Graham, afterwards a famous antislavery worker. 

6 This club was founded in 1827 for the boy-members of Mr. Wood's 



10 MEMOIR OF 

very good master and kept veiy good ordor. He was changed for a 
worse one, Mr Carter who was very severe. He was changed for 
a worse one Mr Clarke who kept no order at all. The ill effects of 
were visible the New Master Mr Jackson had to keep liis eye on 
them for some time. Mr J. being ill was succeeded by Mr Brown the 
present master. I began to study Latin at Mr Jarvis and have 
studied Grammar the Reader a little Virgil and Cicero I cannot say 
that I have made much Progress I have studied Geography Arithmetic 
Philosophy a little. I do not think that I can improve it any more or 
add any to it except that I was 13 years old the 7th of December, 1831. 
1832 Jan 4th. ,- ^,1 Wm. S. EobinSOX. 

At the same age ne wrote a letter to his brother about 
going to college, in which he says, "You ask whether I am 
going to college ? I think not. A college-life appears to me 
to be a great deal harder than any other. If I expected to 
be Governor of Massachusetts, or a congressman, or a 
'Daniel Webster,' I should go to college; but a person 
may be President of the United States, and yet not go to 
college. Henr}^ Clay never went to college, and Benjamin 
Franklin, neither. I don't expect to be any of these great 
characters. I think I shall learn a -trade, though I have not 
determined what one." He was considered so promising a 
scholar, that it was often urged upon his father to send him 
to college at all hazards. One gentleman, a Dr. Small, 
offered to help him enter Harvard ; saying that he could worlc 
his wa^' through l)y doing some work, such as sweeping, 
building fires, «fec. Said his father, "He shall never take a 
broom there : if he can't get a living without ruhhincj cujainst 
that college, he may beg." Perhaps the father had in his 
mintl the case of a young man of the town who had been 
sent to college at great expense and privation to the rest of 
the family, and had returned to his father's farm ; and all 
the good he received from his college-education was, that he 
was sent year after j'ear to represent his native town in the 
General Court. 

Bchool. It was called " The Young Declaiming and Debating Society." 
W. S. Robinson was secretary, in his turn (a new secretary was chosen 
every third week), as early as 1830 (when he was twelve years old); and 
the subject for debate was, " Ought Negroes to be allowed to vote?" 



''WAIiRINGTOX." 11 

Mr. Robinson's opinion of a college-education for himself 
ma}' have been based on the fact that the famil}^ means were 
not sufficient to afford such an advantage to one of its mem- 
bers without defrauding the rest ; and, as he expressed it 
later in life, "It is not fair to sacrifice the women of the 
family, that the boy or bo^'S may have a chance of education : 
they have no right to such a lion's share." Perhaps he 
thought of his sisters, one of whom, Lucy, a little older 
than he, was his companion and helper in all things, and 
w^ho, as bright and studious as himself, led him in all his 
studies. He loved this sister, who resembled him, very 
dearl}' ; and their terfder relations continued as long as she 
lived: she died j-oung. Was it strange that this " mother- 
bo}',." this companion of a sister as bright and promising as 
himself, should be one of the first advocates of the political 
equalit}' of the sexes ? 

His schoolmates remember him as a good scholar, and 
a boy who always knew his lessons, — a quiet, gentle boy, 
studious, and fond of boolcs ; and one of his teachers. Dr. 
Edward Jarvis, said of him, that "he always stood at 
the head of his class, and he never gave me any trouble in 
his life." Concord even then had a public library, though 
not so complete as it now possesses through the munifi- 
cence of Mr. Munroe ; and the 3'oung student read all the 
books that came in his waj-. He has been described to 
me as a little boy, small even for his age, sitting across the 
door-sill of the old house all the summer afternoons, — while 
the other boj-s were in the w^oods or on the water, — with 
a book almost as large as himself, reading the hours away. 
Not liking always to enjoy alone the good things he read, he 
frequently took his book and went to a neighboring shoe- 
maker's shop, and read long stories and novels to the work- 
men at their lasts ; and they enjoyed it as much as he did. 
He remembered reading Cooper's novel, "The Pioneers," 
and Scott's " Pirate," in this way; and says in one of his 
letters, "One of the hands was named Harry Hooper, a 
curious character, not very bright, and said to be the illegiti- 



12 MEMOIR OF 

mutes on of a British soldier or officer who was prisoner of 
•war (hiring the KcvohUion. lie died in the poor-honsc in 
Concord, a curious waif." This studious habit followed 
him through his whole life. As Macaula^-'s biographer 
says of that great author, " He could neither swim, nor 
row, nor skate, and seldom crossed a saddle, and never will- 
ingly." 

Among his schoolmates were John and Henry D. Thoreau ; 
" David Henry," as he was then called. Of the elder, John, 
Mr. Robinson was very fond. He was a genial and pleasant 
youth, and much more popular with his schoolmates than his 
more celebrated brother. Mr. Robinsan had a high opinion 
of his talents, and said that he was then quite as promising as 
Henry D. He died young, in a very singular manner. From 
a letter written at the time to Mr* Robinson, I am able to 
quote the following account of his death : — 

" Feb. 2, 1S42. 
" I cannot close this hasty note without rcferrin,!? to the sudden 
death of our friend Thoreau, whom you know and loved so well. 
The cause seems very simple. lie was stropping his razor on Satur- 
day afternoon, and cut off a little piece of the end of his finger next 
to the little one, on his left hand. It was very slight, — just the skin 
deep enough to draw hlood. He replaced the skin, and immediately 
put on a rag, without letting it bleed. He paid no more attention to it 
for two or three days, when he found it began to prow painful ; and on 
the next Saturday he found that the skin had adhered to the finger 
slightly on one end, but the other part had mortified. In the even- 
ing he went to Dr. Bartlett, who dressed the finger; and, with no 
apprehension of further difTiculty, he went home. On his way he had 
strange sensations, acute pain in various parts of his body; and 
he was hardly able to get home. The next morning (Sunday) he 
complained of stiffness of the jaws; and at night he was seized with 
violent spasms, and lockjaw sot in. On being told that he must die 
a speedy and painful death, he was unmoved. * Is there no hope?' 
he said. ' None,' i-eplied the doctor. Then, although his friends 
were almost distracted around him, he was calm, saying, ' The cup 
that my Father gives me, shall I not drink it? ' He bade his friends 
all good-by ; and twice he mentioned your name. Xot long before he 
died, in the intervals of his suffering, he thought he had written 
something, and said, 'I will carry it down to Robinson: he will like 
to read it.' He died Tuesday, at two o'clock, p.m., with as much 



"WARRmOTON." 13 

cheerfulness and composure of mind as if only going a short jour- 
ney." 1 

The Concord Debating Society was formed in 1827 ; 
and William Robinson soon became its secretar}-. He was 
librarian of the Sunda}' school for several years, — quite an 
office for a lad ; and his grave manner while distributing 
the books is still remembered b}' his old Sunday-school com- 
panions. He was a frequenter of Ijceums, and soon began 
to read papers on temperance and antislavery ; for Concord 
had even then begun to " breed men for a combat which 
involves personal rights." So passed the j-ears of his boy- 
hood in quiet, pleasant Concord, which he calls at this time 
(in 1834, in a letter to his sister) the " king of towns," — read- 
ing, stud^'ing, and thinking the thoughts of a bo}'. Here he 
attended his first convention, and had a bird's-ej'e view of 
the splendors of Masonr}-, which secret order he opposed all 
through his life, though his father was a great Mason. - 

1 It Avas to the pure spirit of this hrother that Plenry Thoreau dedi- 
cated his booli, " A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Eivers: " — 

" ^Vhere'er tlion goest wlio sailed with me, 
Be thou ray Muse, my brother." 

- The first convention I ever attended was one hekl by the anti- 
Masonic party in Concord. As I stood in the doorway, hat in liand, 
going to and from school, I heard a letter read from Edward Everett. 
I forget the purjjort of it now: but I remember that its contents, as I 
told them to the editor of the Whig uewspajier, created in him an im- 
meuse sensation; and he immediately began, m his jiaper, to clamor 
for its publication. But it was never published. There is a mystery 
about that letter. Mr. Everett, perhaps, remembers what it was. B. 
F. Hallett knew about it; but he carried the knowledge of it away with 
him, and no doubt it altogether passed from his recollection before 
•he died. I am sure it never was printed ; and equally sure, that, if 
printed, it would be considered a curiosity. So much I remember: 
the rest is gone. Mr. Everett was very ambitious, and very anxious 
to get vcjtes, and considerably disposed to dabble in anti-Masonry. 
Whether, at this particular moment, he was getting into it, or out 
of it, I cannot remember. I have a history of the Corinthian Lodge, 
Concord, from which it appears, that, during the thirteen years from 
1832 to 1844 inclusive, only three members were initiated. From 1836 
to 1844, there were only four regular meetings. I well remember the 
change which came over the spirit and prospects of the lodge in 



14 MEMOIR OF 

In 1835, at the age of seventeen, he began to think of 
earning his living ; and, in a h'tlcr to his sister about learn- 
ing a trade, he writes, " I should like the printer's trade as 
well as any other. Mr. Bemis wants an apprentice." He 
accordingly went into the office of "The Gazette," whicli 
Mr. G. F. Bemis then published, to learn to set t3'pe. In 
one paper, sent to his brother at Dedham soon after, is a 
" stickful" set up by himself in place of an advertisement 
removed for the purpose. It is probably some of his first 

work at the " case." 

Concord, May 2G, 1836. 

Dear BROxnEn, — How do you do ? How are all the folks ? I 
take my stick iu 1^^ to inform j-ou that we are all alive and well, 
and hope you enjoy the same hlessing ! ! I write in great haste, and 
hope you will excuse me if I do not write well. L. has not gone to 
M. yet. Father has gone to Groton to work. Heard from J. a day 
or two ago. S. was not well, Aunt C. has returned, — I have told 
you all the news. Isn't this a good way to save postage? Give my 
love to wife. L. and all, I suppose, do the same. Ilad a letter from 
F. the other day — all well. How's business? Ihaveseta stickful. 
So good-by. Yours, W. S. R. 

that town. The Masonic hall was over the schoolhouse; and, before the 
evil day came, we boys used to wonder, and be very much awestruck 
when we looked through the keyhole, and saw the carpentry, supposed 
to be coflins and scaffolds, and the regalias, supposed to typify all the 
glory of the days of Solomon and Hiram. Occasionally, Elisha Col- 
burn, the tyler, was seen at the entrance with his drawn sword. In 
those days, John Keyes, father of the late United-States marshal, was 
king; and "William AVhiting, father of the late Solicitor of the Treasury, 
was priest; and Dr. Ivii^ley was a high dignitary of the order. —W. S. R. 
in 1863. 



"WARRINGTON." 15 



CHAPTER II. 

YOUTH. 

[183T-1842.] 

" A boy's will is the wind's will ; 

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

Longfellow. 

In 1837, Concord had not begun to be the centre of thought 
that it is since supposed to have become. Mr. Emerson, fresh 
from his abandoned pulpit in Boston, did not come to live 
there till 1834, though he had made long visits previously at 
the "old manse" of his grandfather. Dr. Ripley; and the 
choice spirits who subsequentl}' gathered around him had not 
yet found their master and teacher. Dr. Ripley was still 
preaching in 1837 ; and 3'oung Robinson, who does not seem 
to have inherited his grandfather's opinion of this clerg}^- 
man's sermons, was, unlike some of the other youngsters,^ 
an attentive listener. Perhaps, however, he had not 
begun to reflect whether it "did him any good," or not. 
About this time, Universalism began to be preached in 

1 I remember that when the legislature of 1859 revised the statutes, 
when the House came to the chapter relating to towns and town-offi- 
cers, somebody moved to strike out the word "tithingman." There 
■was a laugh, and out went the word; and, wherever the tithingman 
appeared elsewliere in the code, he was ousted without remonstrance. 
Tliat was the official end of John Le Gross, the old fellow who used to 
sit in the gallery of Concord meeting-house in the days of my boyhood, 
and terrify the youngsters into an appearance of listening to Dr. 
Ripley's sermons, — an end of him, his administrators and assigns. No 
tithingman has exercised authority in Massachusetts since that fatal 
innovation by the legislature of 1859. — W. S. R. in 1868. 



16 MEMOIR OF 

Concord ; and he was taught to have great respect for John 
Murra}' (the founder) and Walter Balfour. " I have heard 
one of m}' relatives tell how the children in her family used 
to get behind the door, and whisper among themselves, 
' Father has been over to hear Murray- preach ; ' the event 
being one not to be talked about, except very privateh-." ^ 
Universalism was thought to be as bad as atheism in those 
days. His father's famil}- began to take "The Trumpet" 
as soon as it appeared ; and, listening to its alarm, they very 
soon went wholly over to Universalism. 

In one of his early letters he writes to his sister, "TVe 
had a little celebration here (Jul}- 4) of our own, in a quiet 
wa}'. The people of the town assembled at the Monument ; 
and we had two prayers, an address b^- Squire Hoar, and 
an original hymn to the tune of ' Old Hundred,' sung by 
the assembled multitude, the words by Rev. Mr. Emerson." 
He also writes that he ' ' went to two funerals in one da}-, 
having nothing else to do, and heard sermons bj- Dr. Ripley 
and Rev. Mr. Emerson. Quite an interesting time, I assure 
you." It would seem b}' this that Mr. Emerson had not then 
escaped the " Rev." prefix to his name, though at that time 
he must have been meditating that immortal address which he 
delivered (Juh' 15, 18o-S) before the senior class in the Divin- 
ity School at Cambridge. Mr. Robinson said of this address, 
that it was "impossible to estimate the incalculable effect 
it had had upon the minds of the young men of his time." 
" The Dial " was set up in 1840. Mr. Robinson was a con- 
stant reader of this magazine (which he carefull}- bound and 
preserved) ; and through it he became acquainted with the 
writings of Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Tlieodore Parker, and 
the rest of that scliool of transcendentalists who did so much 
to modif)' the austerity of New-England Puritanism. And 
he agreed thus far with his friend Bishop Haven, who said 
(in 1872) that it was "of no use to fight Rcuan and that 
class of infidel writers ; for Emerson and his school were the 

1 "W. S. B. in 1870. 



"WARRINGTON." 17 

arcli-unbelievers who were silently undermining the churches 
right in their midst, while people of his [Haren's] sort were 
firing far away into the enemy's country." Emerson's first 
book was printed in 1836 : and from that time the sermons 
of Dr. Eiple}' and the discoveries of Universalism, founded 
as the belief is on the meaning or ' ' mild no meaning ' ' of 
one word {Aion), had less influence over the mind of the 
thoughtful youth ; for ever after ' ' no dogmas nailed his 
faith," and he became a reverent foUoAver of the new teacher, 
who had said that "faith makes us, and not we it ; and faith 
makes its own forms." 

In September, 1837, having learned his trade, the young 
printer went to Dedham to work at the case for two dollars 
a week, for his brother, E. G. Robinson, in the office of 
"The Norfolk Advertiser."^ This brother, Avhom he loved 
so well, and whom he so much resembled mentally, had a 
great influence over him, and guided him in his reading, and 
in his first eff'orts towards editorial writing. He was an elder 
brother, a rare humorist, and knew the value of a laugh, say- 
ing that it was "worth a hundred groans in any market." 
His witty sayings and stories are still remembered b}^ the 
men over whom, through his paper, he exerted a wide influ- 
ence. "The Advertiser" was a strong temperance paper, 
and welcomed to its columns articles on that and other moral 
questions, written by young people who have since tried 
their wings (quills) over higher and broader fields. Among 
them were C. C. Hazewell, George H. Monroe, F. W. Bird, 
Seth "Webb, jun., and S. B. Noyes. The j'oung printer 
soon began to find his pen ; and in June, 1838, his first long 
article appeared, — a sketch called " The Miseries of a Near- 
sighted Man." In November, he writes to his sister that 
he is " brimful of politics ; had communications in last 
week's paper. "We have beaten the Locofocos handsomely. 
Go to singing-school, and think I shall be a tremendous 
fellow on the bass." 

1 Name changed in 1839 to Democrat. 



18 • MEMOIR OF 

Mr. F. W. Bird was a friend of Mr. E. G. Robinson, and 
frequently sent articles to the paper, which the 3'oung printer: 
helped set up. It was considered b}- him "good training 
in the hieroglyphic line." " My brother also brought in, 
one day, Buckingham's ' New-England Magazine,' and gave 
me Hawthorne's 'Rill from the Town Pump' for copy." 
But the sh^^ j'outh of small stature, looking 3-ounger than 
he reall}- was, did not attract the attention of the man, who, 
ten jears later, was to become his friend and co-worker. 
An old Dedham friend, who remembers Mr. Robinson at 
this time, describes him as a "fresh, red-cheeked, prepos- 
sessing j-outh, with a taste for books, and a capacity for the 
debating-society;" and adds, " There was a debate in the 
schoolhouse on the question, ' "Was Bonaparte a Benefit to 
Mankind?' Young Robinson took the affirmative, and 
argued it with a clearness that quite impressed my boyish 
mind. He used to observe keenly in those daj^s, and gave 
me once a graphic description of the impression made on 
his mind b}' a Dedham town-meeting. He was shy and 
studious, fond of fun when he did speak, but more fond of 
poring over his books in the chimney-corner than of seeking 
the company of the 3'oung people of the town." 

He returned to Concord in January, 1839, and was urged 
to take "The Yeoman's Gazette," a Whig paper devoted 
to "anti-Masonry, ant i-Van-Buren, anti-Locofoco," and to 
the " dissemination of Whig principles." In the paper of 
Jan. 19 the following notice appears : — 

" The connection of Mr. Scales with ' The Yeoman's Gazette ' hav- 
hig ceased, it will in fiitnre be conducted by W. S. Robinson." 

Edward Everett was governor at that time ; and in the 
first number we find his annual address. The j'oung editor's 
first article is on the election of Nathan Brooks (an abolition 
Whig) to Congress, against William Parmenter, the Loco- 
foco candidate ; and is as follows : — 

'* To the Wliifj Abolitionists of District No. 4: — 

"The real question which you are called upon to decide is this: 
Will Mr. Brooks truly and faithfully represent your views on the 



"WARRINGTON." 19 

subject of slavery ? Will he act and vote as you wish ? Do you in 
all sincerity and fairness believe that he is the friend of justice, 
liberty, and equal rights ; that he is an enemy to slavery, and in favor 
of its immediate abolition? The times are critical. Bad men are in 
office, and desperately struggling, by intrigue and corrui^t practices, 
to retain misused powers. The rule adopted by the great and 
venerable Thomas Jefferson, on placing none but ' honest and ca- 
pable ' men in office, seems to be laid aside and disregarded; and the 
consequence is, the people are i^illaged and wronged. Millions and 
millions of dollars, wrung from the hwje'paw of industry, have been 
embezzled and wasted, within a few years, by executive officers. 
And who is responsible for these frauds upon the people? We 
answer, ' The administration from whom they receive the appoint- 
ment.' And will not the people, who have the remedy in their own 
hands, redress their own wrongs, and right themselves through the 
ballot-box? To the polls, then ! and, regardless of minor differences 
and small sacrifices, strike for liberty, rebuke corruption, thrust all 
unfaithful servants into outer darkness, and raise honest men to 
places of honor and trust." 

"The Gazette" gave due prominence to John Quincy 
Adams's "letter to his constituents," warning them of the 
encroachments of the slave-power in Congress. Middlesex 
County, in 1840, was a stronghold of abolition principles ; 
and Concord, then a more important town politically than 
now, played a great part in the beginning of the political 
abolition movement. 

In answer to a call for tlie Baltimore Convention, Con- 
cord responded by sending ten "Whig young men" as 
delegates ; and William S. Robinson's name headed the 
list. Massachusetts sent twelve hundred delegates to this 
convention, a hundred and ninety -four of whom were from 
Middlesex County. They were addressed b^' Cla}-, Webster, 
and other great men of the day ; and the first Whig Presi- 
dent, William H. Harrison, was nominated. Many of us 
can remember the exciting events of this campaign, — the 
torchlight processions (a new excitement then) , log-cabins 
on wheels, barrels of hard cider, and songs of " Tippecanoe 
and Tyler too." Even the Avomen took part: the}' named 
their sun-bonnets "log-cabins," and set their tea-cups at 
supper and breakfast in little glass plates with log-cabins 



20 MEMOIR OF 

impressed on the bottom.^ In July, 1840, there was a 
"Harrison barbecue" at Concord, at which sixt3'-throe' 
hundred men were comfortabl}- seated in a tent at dinner. 
Elihu Burritt was invited to participate in these festivities, 
and sent his regrets to Hon. Samuel Iloar, saying in his 
letter, " As Concord spoke Jirst in the cause of American 
libert}', I hope her voice will be loudest in the cause of 
REFORM on the morrow. The enemies of our country will 
hear on that day, I think, a voice from New England that 
will be a dreadful sound in their ears." " This campaign," 
saj's Mr. William Schouler, a contemporar}', "inaugurated 
in New England the Western custom of stump-speaking, 
which, however, is only an old English custom ; and a 
number of 3'oung men of ^Middlesex Count}' then emerged 
from political obscurit}' into prominence. Among them, on 
the Democratic side, were N. P. Banks, George S. Boutwell, 
Josiah G. Abbott, and Benjamin F.Butler; and, on the 
Whig side, Henry Wilson, E. 11. Hoar, Albert H. Nelson, 
Charles R. Train, and William S. Robinson." 

" The Yeom.an's Gazette" had been for years without an 
editor, and was good for notliing when Mr. Robinson took it. 
The advertising and job-work paid the expense of running 
the office. In July, 1840, it was made over to the new editor 
by some of the young Whigs, who were determined to have a 
good organ. In a paper preserved b}' Mr. Robinson, dated 
July 15, 1840, 1 lind that "all right to the property and 
appurtenances of ' Tiie Yeoman's Gazette ' is hereb}- relin- 
quished to William S. Robinson bj' Daniel Shattuck, Nathan 
Brooks, and others." Its name was changed to " Repub- 
lican ; " and its prospectus declared it to be "devoted, as 
its name imports, to the support of sound republican j^rinci' 
pies, to the diffusion of trutlis, to the exposure of abuses, to 
the fair and candid discussion of public measures and public 
men." It became at once one of the handsomest and most 
spirited Whig papers in the State. 

1 Human nature is the same now that it was in 1840, when wo 
shouted ourselves hoarse for Harrison, and decorated log-cabins, aud 
rolled big balls througli the streets. — W. S. R. in 1872. 



"WARRINGTON." 21 

The young editor, though "brimful of politics," did not 
forget the literar}^ part of the paper ; and we find in it some 
of Emerson's early poems, and Hawthorne's stories as they 
came out. Mr. Robinson was one of the first to discover 
and appreciate Hawthorne's genius.^ Eliza Cook, author of 
"The Old Arm-Chair, " and other writers not so widely 
known, were also copied from. A notice of the first vol- 
ume of Emerson's Essays (advertised in "The London 
Examiner" as "Essays of R. W. Emerson of Concord, 
Mass., with a Preface by Thomas Cavlyle ") appeared in 
"The Republican" in 1841. 

We find also in the paper, that, in the year 1839, John 
Thoreau (brother of Henry) kept the Concord Academ}" ; 
and he "was assisted by Henry D. Thoreau, the present 
instructor." 

In an article on the "Excitement of Composition" in a 
countr}' newspaper, the editor relates his own experience in 
that vocation : — 

" The editor of the selfsame hebdomadal you are now perusing has 
plenty of the ' excitement of composition,' as Amos Kendall calls it. 
First there is the ' composition ' of paragraphs, which, when printed, 
are to have the semblance of editorial; and then the 'composition' 
of the type, which conveys to the distinguished though not numer- 
ous readers of 'The Republican' the brilliant thoughts which the 
joint labors of the scissors and pen have produced. This pleasurable 
'excitement' is occasionally varied with intervals of labor at the 
'devil's tail,' with now and then a delightful episode, such as trim- 
ming the lamps, sweeping out the office, writing and reading dunning 
letters, &c. Now, is it wonderful that a paper conducted in such 
style should be less interesting, original, and spirited than those car- 
ried on by men in more prosperous circumstances ? — Vide our neigh- 
bor of 'The Freeman.' He keeps a cow, and has 'hay to give her,' 
ay, and sugar-beets in plenty. lie keeps a horse also, and a hand- 
some chaise (he will jiardon us for going thus into detail: we do it 
merely to illustrate our subject), and a pig, we believe, a man-servant 
and maid-servant, and an ox — But we won't be personal : we com- 

1 In 1842 he writes in the Lowell Journal, "Concord is becoming 
more literary every year. Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the most 
delightful American writers, is about to take up his residence in the 
mansion-house so long occupied by the late Dr. Eipley." 



22 MEMOIR OF 

menced this article with a doteruiination to use no denunciatoiy epi- 
thets towards our neighbor, and we will stick to it. But to proceed: i 
there sits he all day in his arm-chair, before him a tabic covered with 
the choicest Locofoco literature, in his right hand the scissors, and 
in the inkstand a ' fresh-nibbed patent pen,' Ever and anon, as a 
thought comes into his head, he commits it to paper in that language 
of beauty and power which so delights the universal Locofoco party 
of 3Iiddlesex County. lie knows little, and cares less, about the 
'drudgery of the printing-oflSce.' He is, in fact, * monarch of all he 
surveys.' The axe of the postmaster-general did not terrify him; 
and if five hundred of his subscribers should cry, ' Stop my paper I ' 
he would have an abundance left. 

"Keader, you see our relative situations. He flourishes 'like a 
green bay-tree.' We must leave off this scribbling, and go to sticking 
type, or 'The Republican ' won't be out to-day." 

" The Republican " did not receive that support which one 
of the most spirited papers in the State had a riglit to expect 
from the determined "Whig young men ; and the young editor 
soon found (as his brother in Dedliam had said of a similar 
experience) that " writing for glory, and printing for fun," 
was not just the thing for a poor fellow ; and that "parties 
all expected editors to work for nothing, and find them- 
selves." As Mr. Robinson said later in life, it had turned 
out that he had printed the paper principally for tlie benefit 
of local politicians, certainly not for his own. In December, 
1841, he sold "The Republican" to William Schouler of 
West Cambridge for not half enough to pa^' its debts, losing 
all his years of labor ; and wrote his 

LAST WORDS. 

" We came here with less than a dollar of ready money, and we leave 
in a predicament astonishingly similar. We have no expressions of 
gratitude for favors received, and we feel under no oljligations to any 
man in Concord; for we have given them an equivalent for all the 
money they have paid us. We will say one thing for old Concord : it 
is the best town in the world. There is nothing like it in this coun- 
try — or any other. For pretty girls and right good follows, for noblo 
men and good women, for wits, wags, and wonders of every kind, it 
is the first. Who says it is not never lived here. 

" To our readers we wish every blessing. May thoy have full purse? 
and contented hearts! — not so contented that they will not make an 



"WAItBINGTON." 23 

effort to better their condition, and free themselves from the preju- 
dices and bigotry of the age ; but so contented that they may not be 
always grumbling with their lot, and finding fault with the Disposer 
of it. To our neighbor over the way we say, ' Good luck to him in 
every thing but his Locofocoism.' He is not half so bad a fellow as 
we have represented him to be. To all our friends and enemies (if 
we have any) we bid a cordial and affectionate farewell." 

Among Mr. Robinson's 3'oung companions and correspond- 
ents was George H. Derby (" Jolni Plioenix ") , wlio bad lived 
in Concord. Wbetber tbej' were scboolmates or not I bave 
been unable to discover. Tbe bandvvriting of Mr. Derby is 
almost a facsimile of Mr. Robinson's at tbe same date. He is 
remembered in Concord as a wild, barum-scarum lad, full of 
fun and jokes ; and droll stories of bis pranks are still related. 
He was clerk in a countr}' store, and, in tbe absence of bis 
employer, would stretcb bis ' ' laz}- lengtb ' ' along tbe coun- 
ter. If a customer came in, — perbaps a little girl for a pint 
of molasses, — be would sa}', " Go awaj^ ! we don't keep it." 
Tbe post-office was kept in tbe same store ; and once, wben a 
boy came for letters, be was told, " No : tbere aren't any for 
j-ou, and tbere never luill be. You needn't come again." 
He would often draw on tbe letters a picture of a man witb 
a trumpet, blowing tbe superscription out of bis moutb. 
Mr. Derby was educated at West Point, and afterwards 
stationed in tbe Soutb, wbere be married a'Soutbern lady 
wbo beld slaves. He died in 1861.^ " He was one of tbe first, 
if not tbe best, of tbe modern American bumorists." ^ Tbe 
following is a cbaracteristic letter written by bim to Mr. 
Robinson wbile at West Point : — 

U. S. BIiLiTARY Academy, Feb: 17, 1844. 

From Derby !!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! 

Last March, Lieut. Brunton brought me his album, with a request, 
a very polite request, that I would draw a picture in it. I liked Lieut. 
Brunton very much. I loved drawing excessively. I thanked him 
for the compliment he paid my poor talent, and took the book with 
pleasure. I was lazy. I delayed for three weeks drawing in Lieut. 
Brunton' s album. He asked me one day how I was coming on. I 

1 Captain U. S. Topographical Engineers. 2 \f^ s_ jj, i^ 1871. 



24 MEMOIR OF 

replied, " Grandly," and went to my room and sketched an outline in 
his book. But it had become a task. I drew every day, on scraps of 
paper, tilings good enough to figure in the album : but I couldn't draw 
in that; itwasatask. Lieut. Brunton left in June. He sent to me for 
his book ; I sent it to liim : there was nothing in it ; for I rubbed out the 
outline. And thus I lost as good a friend as I had in the corps. Now, 
in my conduct, old fellow, don't you see yourself? The first two or 
three letters were pleasant; you liked it: but it became troublesome, 
— this writing once a month. My poor letter arrived ; it was a bore 
to answer it; you put it off from day to day: and I am perfectly 
confident, if I had answered your last, you would have done the 
same thing again; for I believe you are something like myself in 
many respects, and I can enter into your feelings sometimes. Now, 
one letter a year is a different matter. I know you will answer this; 
and I shall reply. I suppose then you will gradually procrastinate, 
until, in two or three months, I will rush into your sanctum, and pull 
your ears for not writing. Why, if I was not going to the old Bay 
State in four months, do you think I should write now, to be again 
neglected? Fiddle! Not I! I like you. Hob, much ; I think about 
you a good deal: there's something nice, too, about having a friend 
whom you love, and imagine all sorts of things about, without know- 
ing exactly how he looks. I felt a — a kind of a twitch, a sort of a 
pull, a kind of a "do write, Derby," tug from my heart, when your 
letter by the " Plebe " arrived ; but I said to it, " Hold your tongue, you 
fool!" and put the letter in the bottom of my trunk, where I couldn't 
see it; and, whenever I thought of you, I would whistle some particu- 
larly lively air in a peculiarly piercing style, and think, " It's best as it 
is." So now you see. Every thing goes on so so: I've risen two files 
since June in my class, and am fourth. I'm a corporal of the " color- 
guard," and expect to be first oiderly-sergeant in June. Thus much 
on my own trumpet. Your affectionate friend, 

Geo. H. Derby. 

P. S. — How is that sneak of a since I drubbed his soul's 

lean cottage ? 



'WARRINGTON." 25 



CHAPTER III. 
MANHOOD. 

[1842-1818.] 

" The wise man who lives a virtuous life, gentle and prudent, lowly and teach- 
able, — such a one shall be exalted. If he be resolute and diligent, unshaken in 
misfortune, persevering and wise, — such a one shall be exalted. Benevolent, 
friendly, gi'atef ui, liberal, a guide, instructor and trainer of men, — such a one shall 
attain honor." — Buddila. 

In 1842, about the time Mr. Schoiiler bought "The Re- 
publican, " he also bought "The Lowell Courier and Jour- 
nal;" and the two papers were consolidated, or what is, 
perhaps, nearer the truth, the Lowell paper swallowed up its 
weaker contemporaiy ; and Mr. Robinson went with his 
friend and employer to the new and bus}^ factoiy-town of 
Lowell, there to make his obscure pen a power to be felt all 
over the State. Middlesex County was in 1842 very unsound 
in its politics, the anti-Masonic coalition having demoralized 
it six or eight 3'ears before ; and the Lowell paper did much 
to bring it round to the Whig side. Mr. Schouler began 
with some ideas that he could not fully cany out, — a Wash- 
ington correspondence, for instance ; but the paper was a 
veiy effective one. The Washington correspondent was the 
assistant editor, who writes from that cit}- to his sister, 
Jan. 17, as follows: — 

"I am now at Mrs. Van Coble's, on 4^ Street. I pay six dollars a 
week: the price at the hotel was two dollars a day. There are five 
congressmen at the same place. I am writing this in the hall of the 
House of Representatives, where I have got a seat, for the present, by- 
the ill luck of Charles T. Torrey, who has been clapped in jail in 



26 MEMOIR OF 

Maryland for being an abolitionist. I believe he went to take notes 
at a slavery convention, and was found with abolition papers, and 
arrested. I am sorry he is arrested, but am glad I got his seat," 

To " The Journal " he writes (Jan. 18 and 28): — 

*' I do not know what idea is commonly entertained of the House of 
Kepresentatives of the United States; but he who has a very exalted 
one is destined to be disappointed, .should he, even for one day, witness 
its proceedings. Here are two hundred and fifty men, chosen from 
among their fellows for their superior wisdom and worth, and com- 
missioned to make the laws of the nation. Look at them as you 
enter the chamber. There is nothing remarkable in their ajipearance. 
Some of them are longer, some shorter, than their neighbors. Some 
have more ' breadth of back and sesquipedality of belly ' than the aver- 
age, and others are more attenuated ; but they do not look like better 
or abler men than you will find in the State Ilouse in Boston, or in a 
village town-meeting. You may expect decorum and order here, a 
grave and dignified debate, an anxious desire to do right. But, alas! 
all is confusion and turmoil. The speeches are filled with abuse and 
blackguardism. Members are scattered all about the floor, talking, 
whispering, laughing, or quarrelling: decency is unknown, and disor- 
der is in the ascendant. Members rise with professions of jiatriotism 
and love of country, and revile their opponents by the hour together. 
They will talk beautifully and eloquently about their duty to their 
constituents, their love for truth, and their hatred of ail chicanery; 
but truth, honor, and their country, may go to the bugs if they stand 
in the way of their party. As for ability in debate, I liave heard 
better speaking and better argument in a country lyceum in Massa- 
chusetts than most that I have heard here. I mean not to say that 
there are not some men of great talent and exalted virtue here : I know 
there are, and I am proud to think that the Bay State sends her share 
of these. But, generally speaking, the character of the House is as I 
have described it. . . . 

" I hoar that the Uev. Charles T. Torrey, lately the editor of ' The 
Free American ' at Boston, who has been in this city acting" as 
reporter for several weeks past, has been arrested at Annapolis, in 
Maryland, upon the charge of being an incejuliary abolitionist. I 
have not learned the particulars ; but this is the way that I heard the 
story. What his incendiary niovonients have been, I do not know. 
Not only is the man who burns buildings an incendiary in the esti- 
mation of some Southern people, but also he who dares to express his 
belief that one man has no right to hold another man as property, 
that slavery ought not to exist in free America, and that the respect- 
ful petitions of citizens of the North sliould have a respectful hearing 



"WARRINGTON." 27 

by the representatives of the Union. If Mr. Torrey lias done nothing 
more incendiary than to express these sentiments (and I do not know 
but he has), it is a burning shame that he sliould be imprisoned for it. 
We shall soon hear of the indictment and incarceration of the Inde- 
pendence Bell at Philadelphia, which proclaims liberty to the world 
and all its inhabitants. 

" Some gentlemen from Pennsylvania had petitions upon the sub- 
ject of the abolition of slavery. Some of these came under the rule of 
the House, and some did not. Those that did, of course, were laid 
upon the table instanter; and the others were promptly laid there by 
vote of the House, upon motion of some one of the Southern mem- 
bers, generally Mr. Wise, who evidently wishes to be thought the 
champion of slavery upon the floor. Some of the abolitionists are 
very adroit in wording these petitions so that they may escape the 
working of the Twenty-first Rule. Citizens of Bucks County, Penn., 
petitioned that Congress would look into and investigate the Isiws of 
the States and Territories, and see if there was in them any thing 
conflicting with the truths of the Declaration of Independence, or 
the divine injunction that we should do to others as we would have 
others do to us. (I have not the precise words of the petition; but 
this is the substance. ) But Southern members and Northern Loco- 
foco machines seemed to think that it was no business of Congi'ess if 
some of the States did defy the law of God and the truths of the 
Declaration ; and so they voted to lay the i^etition upon the table. 
True State-rights men, these ! 

"Last sabbath I went to the Capitol to hear the Rev. John New- 
land Mafiit, the famous Methodist clergyman, who has been recently 
elected chaplain of Congress. The large hall of the House of Repre- 
sentatives was crowded. The text was in the following words : ' For 
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, 
saith the Lord. For as the lieavens are higher than the earth, so 
are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your 
thoughts.' I am at a loss to account for the popularity of Mr. MafSt. 
I was not pleased with his sermon. It consisted mostly of illustra- 
tions of the fact that there were often little causes for great effects ; 

that 

' God moves in a mj-sterious way 
His vvouders to perform.' 

His illustrations of this he drew from every thing in nature and his- 
tory. He spoke of the discovery, settlement, and independence of the 
nation, of the reformations, of the mission of Christ and his apostles, 
of the invention of printing and the steam-engine, of the origin of 
Bible societies and sabbath schools, of the great men in history, — 
all illustrating his truth. He piled figure upon figure, and metaphor 



28 ilEMOIIi OF 

upon metaphor, until I was sick of it. His oratory was extremely 
flowery. He recited some parts of his sermon as j'ou have heaid 
rantin^; actors spout Shakspeare. The spouting of the reverend pro- 
fessor may have heen hetter; hut the speech was infinitely worse. 
Mr. Maffit may be a very sincere man; hut his sermon gives no evi- 
dence of it." 

The "Washington correspondence was soon discontinued ; 
and Mr. Robinson returned to Lowell to write for Clay and 
the unit}' of the Whigs. At the Middlesex-County Conven- 
tion, " AVhig principles " were indorsed in resolutions; but 
nothing was said against slaver}-. At an antislavery con- 
vention held in Lowell in April, 1843, Mr. Garrison called 
upon the Northern Church to come out from its Southern 
brethren, who upheld slaver}-, and " shake the dust from its 
feet, and declare itself free from pollution." In a report of 
this convention, Mr. Robinson dissented from Mr. Garrison, 
and wrote one of his first antislavery political articles. 
Then he thoroughly believed in the Whig party, and 
thought it was able and willing to abolish slavery. " Re- 
form within the party" was his creed; and when, in 18-43, 
the Liberty party appeared, he warned the "Whigs against it 
as a " man-trap political party." "The Whigs," he said, 
" have gone uniformly for the slave ; and theirs is the only 
party which goes to work constitutionally and practically to 
bring about good results." 

In 1843 William Schouler published "The Lowell Offer- 
ing," a magazine written for and conducted by factovy-girls. 
Mr. Robinson was much interested in this enterprise, and 
was a frequenter of the Improvement Circle (a monthly 
meeting of the contributors to "The Offering") during the 
years of its publication. This magazine was first published 
in 1840, and was continued at intervals until 1846. Har- 
riet Farley and Harriot Curtis (the author of two novels) 
were its editors ; and Lucy Larcom and her sisters, Mar- 
garet Foley the sculptor, and others not so widely known, 
were among its contributors. When Dickens visited this 
country in 1842, he went tlu'ough the Lowell Mills, and a 



''WARRINGTON." 29 

copy of " The Offering" was presented to him. He wrote 
of it as follows : — 

"They have got up among themselves a periodical called ' Tho 
Lowell Offering,' whereof I brought away from Lowell four hun- 
dred good solid pages, which I have read from beginning to end. 
Of the merits of ' The Lowell Offering ' as a literary production I 
will only observe, — putting out of sight the fact of the articles 
having been written by these girls after the arduous hours of the day, 
— that it will compare advantageously with a great many English 
annuals." 

Selections from " The Offering" were printed in England 
under the auspices of Harriet Martineau, who was ■very 
much interested iu its publication. Tlie volume was called 
" Mind among the Spindles." 

In 1845 came the annexation of Texas, called by anti- 
slavery people ' ' the Texas iniquitj' ; ' ' and Mr. Robinson 
came out with what he afterwards called a "slashing and 
crushing editorial ' ' against this crowning wickedness of the 
slave-power, and so committed his first act of insubordina- 
tion to the "Whig part}'.^ An anti-Texas convention was 
held in Concord, Sept. 22, 1845, at which Dr. Elisha Hun- 
tington of Lowell presided. Stephen C. Phillips, Henry 
Wilson, E. R. Hoar, "W". H. Channing, and William Llo3-d 
Garrison, spoke ; and strong autislavery resolutions were 
passed. The same month, Mr. Robinson went to Man- 
chester, N.H., to edit "The American" (a Whig paper), 
along with John H. Warland, and " to write for Jack Hale, 
and rescue the State from the Locofocos." March 16, 
1846, ?ie writes that the Locofocos are beaten handsomely; 
and says further, that lie thinks the Whigs had better employ 

1 In 1833, when South Carolina threatened to nulhfy on account 
of the tariff, Mr. Nathan Appleton was the stiffest man we had at the 
Nortli, except old John Quincy Adams; but when Texas annexation 
came, in 1845, he, with Mr. Lawrence, caved in at the summons; and 
cotton paralyzed a ver3^ i^romising auti-Texas movement, in which ]\Ir. 
Webster himself sympathized. I believe my first act of msubordina- 
tion against the "Whig leaders was an article in the Lowell Courier 
against the manifesto of Appleton and Lawrence. — "W. S. R. in 18G8. 



30 MEMOIR OF 

him to go about reforming the politics of Locofoco States. 
John P. Halo was soon after elected to the United States 
Senate. In April Mr. Kobinson returned to "The Lowell 
Courier," where he is described bj- a friend as " sitting on a 
damaged three-logged stool, pegging awa}- intensely at some 
(no doubt) crusher, which he hadn't finished when we left." 

As the result of the annexation of Texas, the war with 
Mexico was declared in May, 184G ; ^ and this aroused at 
once to action men of all political parties at the North, and 
changed thoir minds as to their duties towards slaver^'. At 
a Whig convention hold in Faneuil Ilall Sept. 23, 1846, 
Stephen C. Phillips, Charles Allen, and Charles Sumner, 
proclaimed the divorce between Conscience and Cotton. Mr. 
Robinson was a secretar}- of this convention, and, in his 
report for "The Courier," mentions Mr. Sumner's speech 
as thoroughly antislavery, to the full doctrine of which he 
desired the Whigs of Massachusetts to pledge themselves. 
Mr. Phillips offered some minority resolutions. Daniel 
Webster was brought in to talk them down ; and few people 
who were present on that occasion will ever forget the scene. 
After this, the breach in the Whig part}- grew wider and 
wider, and finall}- led to the formation of the Free-Soil party 
in 1848. 

In October, 184G, Mr. Robinson, for the first time, ventures 
to point out to Mr. Sumner his political duty, in an editorial 
in " The Courier." 

'"I am no politician.' So says Charles Sumner, Esq., in a letter 
addressed to lion. Kobert C. Winthrop, and published in ' T^ie Bos- 
ton Daily Whig.' This letter is upon the subject of the Mexican 
war and Mr. Winthrop's vote for the War Bill. We are not going 
to remark upon these subjects now, but mean to say a word or two 
concerning the position of men who are * no politicians.' Mr. Sum- 



1 In 1847 the American Peace Society offered a prize for the best 
review of the war with Mexico. The New- York Gazette offered the 
foUowing:- chapter I. 

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE WAR — TEXAS. 

CHAPTER n. 
ON THE RESULT OF THK WAR — TAXES. 



"WAREIXGTON." 31 

ner says he is one of this class : and we suppose lie is ; for we do not 
remember to have known him in the political field until the present 
year. Now, can he give any good reason for being 'no politician'? 
Is he not violating his plainest duty in not taking a part, and an 
active part, in the politics of the day ? He is a man of distinguished 
ability, a good speaker, and a ready writer, capable of instructing 
the people of the State upon matters of national policy. He appears 
at a great crisis, as we all think, and seems to lament the decay of 
public virtue, the lack of firmness and manliness in the public sen- 
timent of the times; but what has he done to make that sentiment 
what it ought to be ? Has he, year in and year out, through dark 
and bright fortune, steadily fought the AVhig battle of the State and 
Union against slavery and Locofocoism, which have just now plunged 
the nation into an atrocious and wicked war ? Has his eloquent 
voice been heard against the annexation of Texas, the grep,t wrong 
at the beginning, without which we never would have had this war 
on our hands and consciences ? If there was no necessity for effort 
in ordinary years, did he in the dark days of 1839, when Locofocoism, 
and its ally, liquor-selling, placed Marcus Morton in the chief execu- 
tive seat, or in 1842, wlien Tyler's treason paralyzed the Whigs of 
the Union, — did he in those perilous j'earo use his voice and pen 
for the support of the Whig party? Not that we remember; and 
we have a very distinct recollection of the events of those days, and 
of the men who were true and active then. Mr. Sumner was true, 
we dare say; but was he actii-e as he should have been? 

"Now, we have a high respect for Mv. Sumner, particularly for his 
efforts in the cause of peace and antislavery; and it was from no 
lack of willingness, we are sure, that he has been backward in politi- 
cal matters, but probably from habit, and an exclusive attention to 
literature. But there are plenty of other men in the same condi- 
tion, — 'no politicians,' — men who occasionally write for the hun- 
dred, but never for the hundred thousand. This thing should be 
remedied. Let not this class of men complain of the meanness of 
politics, while they sit quietly in their offices, and do nothing to enno- 
ble it; and let them not complain of bad measures until they have 
done something besides vote against their adoption. For what, pray, 
did they receive superior endowments, if not that they might give 
the people the benefit of them ? We are glad that Mr. Sumner has 
been brought into the field as a Whig speaker and writer, and hope 
he will continue there in that capacity; and we wish him tlie higliest 
success in arousing the people to a sense of the infamy of the present 
war against Mexico." 

In 1846 Mr. Schouler went to Europe, leaving Mr. Rob- 
inson in full charge of " The Courier." He writes to his 



32 MEMOIR OF 

sister at this time, deploring tliat Mr. Schouler does not 
agree with liiin fully on the shiver}- question ; and that he 
cannot say what he wants to, because he must not injure the 
property while his employer is away. After Mr. Schouler 
returned, he still had sole charge of the paper, and would 
not leave the otBce for a daj-, for fear something would get 
into it that he would not willingl}' be responsible for. 
" The Courier," during Mr. Schouler's absence, had made 
fame and capital for the proprietor ; and, as his name alone 
appeared as editor, Mr. Schouler was supposed to be the 
author of some strong articles on " Black and "White Slave- 
r}'," "No More Slave Territor}-," &c., that caused him to 
receive *an offer to go into "The Boston Atlas" in 1847. 
"Writing to a friend about this matter, Mr. Robinson says, — 

" Schouler tliinks he can take the world on liis shoulders. I should 
not have thought that I could have taken it. He begins on ' The 
Atlas' to-day; and I bear 'The Lowell Courier' on my shoulders. 
(Sub rom) I (liink it was better than 'The Atlas' to-day. I don't 
think that paper, for some years to come, will bear such strong anti- 
slavery doses as I helped him put into * The Lowell Courier.' " 

To the same friend, who remonstrated with him upon let- 
ting others take the credit of what he did, he writes, — 

" I lack the quality commonly and expressively called brass, assur- 
ance, impudence, confidence, boldness, or — what you will. When- 
ever I undertake to do a thing, I never fail to do it well ; but I lack 
the confidence to think I am able to do it. How few people know, 
for instance, that I am here writing for 'The Lowell Courier'! 
Townspeople make me laugh almost every day or two (men I know 
by sight) i)y coming in and asking me where the editor is. I tell 
them I am editor pro tempore, I hoard of a man the other day, who 
said, ' I thought the editors knew something; but they don't. I read 
a first-rate piece about the war in "The Courier" the other day, and 
supposed the editor wrote it; but, come to find out, John P. Robin- 
son ^ wrote it.' Some one had told him that ' Robinson wrote it;' 
and he knew of no other but John P. What is fame ? " 

In recalling Mr. Robinson at this date, he is remembered 

1 This was the celebrated 

" John P. Robinson. He 
Says they didn't know every thing down in Judee." 



"WARRINGTON." 33 

as a modest, unassuming person, full of jokes and stories, 
and of the most imperturbable good-nature. He was short 
of stature, had a rosy complexion and blue eyes, aud was 
a man most people would pass by unobserved. There are 
people, who, by the mere arrogance of WxqSx personnel., their 
bodily presence, delude yon into the fancy that 3'ou have 
met a god. This sort of person is often disappointing : on 
further acquaintance, the soul yow expected to find seems to 
melt awa}', and your god turns out a thing of brass and clay. 
There are others who do not impress you at first, but sur- 
prise you continually with new developments of character. 
They " open well : " they never disappoint you. Mr. Rob- 
inson was of this sort. He did not impress strangers. His 
unpretending manners deceived those who desired favors 
from his pen. He listened deferentially and silently to all 
that was said to him on such occasions, aud sometimes gave 
the impression that he was convinced. The pen then became 
his interpreter ; and the meaning of that was alwaj's under- 
stood. He had a hatred of pretenders and shams. His w'as 
a sunn}' philosoply^, that turned every thing over to find a 
cheerful side. He was well satisfied with life as he found it. 
Whatever sharp things he wrote, there w^as no sharpness in 
him. Extracts from letters written in 1847 will illustrate 
the sunny side of his nature. 

" I have had little troubles, which I know would seem very great 
ones to others (such as loss of years of labor) ; yet they never cost 
me an hour of sleep, I laugh them off, and go on my way, growing 
happier and happier every year, aud sneering more aud more at the 
schoolboy-days the poets tell about. My motto is, — 

' Slerrily, merrily, jog along 
The footpath and the stile-a. 
A merry heart goes all the day : 
A sad one tires in a mUe-a.' 

Away with Goldsmith's nonsense about the ' loud laugh that speaks 
the vacant mind 'I It is the truest wisdom to laugh. Who would 
give up Hudibras, or Falstaff, or Dickens, or Tom Hood, for all the 
wisdom of Lord Bacon, or the good bishops and philosophers innu- 
merable who have vexed the world's ear with their religious and 
scientific jargoning? Oh, give us those who make us laugh! — 
* L' Allegro ' before ' II Peuseroso.' 



34 MEMOIR OF 

' Mirth, which ^vrinkled Care derides ; 
Aiid Laughter, holding both his sides.' 

1 pray you, do not let the ' blue-devils ' place their ugly claws upon 
you. They will take the roses out of your cheeks, and place wrinkles 
there instead. 

" How many millions just such as we have suffered and lived and 
died, and no one Icnows they ever more than lived! 'There lived a 
man: ' this is the whole history. "Wliat will be your or my little sor- 
rows a few years hence, when our fate will be to ' lie in cold obstruc- 
tion, and to rot ' ? TVe shall be of no more consequence than the 
generations which breed in the muck-heap, crawl for a moment, 
and give place to new ones. We are ' such stuff as dreams are made 
of.' What matters it what we do, or how we do it? 'Nightly we 
pitch our moving tent;' and the grave is the end of all our toils. 
Here we are in the world. We came into it naked, and go out with 
only a suit of grave-clothes, for which we have quarrelled and lied 
and stolen and murdered (it is possible), to see whether it shall be 
finer or coarser. A last bed in the trench, as the soldier has, is just 
as well as any other; or even the pauper's hasty burial. You speak 
of having troubles in such a melancholy tone. ' Ever,' says Carlyle, 
'ever there is a dark spot on our sunshine: it is the shadow of our- 
selves.^ Who knows but your dark spot is the same, and not the 
shadow of something else ? I cannot help thinking that you have 
a tendency to melancholy and misanthropy, which must be a most 
unhappy state of mind. Such a state of mind betokens more strength 
than the opposite ; that is, those who are always suimy are so because 
they are incapable of intense feeling. But still, if happiness is 'our 
being's end and aim ' (which I don't, however, admit entirely), it 
seems as if it was the highest ambition — to be as this man, in the 
beautiful Arabic eulogy of Antar (quoted in one of Emerson's 
lectures) : — 

'Sunshine was he 
Ii! the wintry d.iy; 
And, in midsummer. 
Coolness and shade.' " 



"WARRINGTON." 35 



CHAPTER IV. 

FEEE-SOIL EDITOR. 

[184S-1852.] 

"He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not 
this to serve me ? saith the Lord." — Bible. 

In 1848 the real antislavery figlit began. Zachaiy Taj^- 
lor, a slaveholder, had been nominated by the Whig party 
for President, with Millard Fillmore for Vice-President. 
This action convinced the Conscience Whigs that they could 
no longer trust its polic}' ; and they determined to break up 
the party which had shown itself incompetent to deal with 
the living question of the day. In June a convention of 
Free-Soil Democrats was held in Utica, which nominated 
Martin Van Buren as the presidential candidate of a new 
party to represent the doctrine of undoing hostility to the 
further extension of slaver}-. The movement spread ; and 
Free-Soil meetings were held in diiferent States. J. R. 
Giddiiigs came to New England from Oliio, and made 
speeches wherever the people would listen to him. He spoke 
in Lowell, in June, from the balcony of a house on John 
Street, at an out-door meeting presided over by E. R. Hoar 
and W. S. Robinson. At this time Mr. Robinson's pros- 
pects were good. He was the editor of a leading paper ; 
his debts were paid ; and he was expecting soon to be 
married, and to make for himself a home in Lowell. But 
for one thing, he would have gone forward in life without 
meeting with those vicissitudes which it is the duty of his 
biographer to record. 



86 MEMOIR OF 

Says Socrates, ""WTierever a man's place is, — whether 
the place which he has chosen, or that in which he has beeii 
placed by a commander.^ — there he ought to remain in the 
hour of danger." The freedom of the slave was as dear to 
Mr. Robinson as to an}^ of those men and women who have 
given their lives to that great cause. He believed, with manj' 
others, that the true way to effect emancipation was by polit- 
ical action, and that the time had come to organize a new 
movement. He had refused to acquiesce in Taylor's nomina- 
tion, and had written articles in " The Courier " to prove that 
the Whig candidate was neither antislavery nor "Whig ; the 
latter ground being tenable enough, but hardly sufficient of 
itself, he said, to justify bolting. Lowell, at that time and 
long after, was thoroughly- Whig, and devoted to the cotton 
interest. All its manufactures depended on this product of 
slave-labor, and its wealth was emplo3-ed in the support of 
the "peculiar institution." Mr. Atkinson had bought Mr. 
Schouler out in 1848, and Mr. Robinson still held the posi- 
tion of editor of "The Courier." His editorials had been too 
strong, and had gone too far, even for some of the Conscience 
Whigs, one of whom wrote to him in May, 1848, — 

" I read your leaders of Monday with great interest, but with some 
degree of misgiving, and Wednesday with unqualified approbation. 
The Webster article has a good deal in it that may be justified on the 
ground that it is God^s truth ; but I was sorry you happened to say it 
just now. The -truth is, we are trying to get up a Northern rally 
against both Clay and Taylor, and, in their divided state, hope to 
beat them, or have them beat each other." 

Another Conscience AVhig wrote to tell him, that, if he 
did not want to go in for the new candidate, he had better 
keep dark till after election, for fear of losing his position. 
His employers told him that he must write no more such 
articles as he filled " The Courier " with, because the3' would 
offend the Whig leaders. Two agents of the manufacturing 
corporations called on him, and told him that he could keep 
his position as editor of " The Courier," but that he must 
saj' nothing against Taylor ; that ho could still work for the 
Whig party, and let the " conscience " part of it alone. 



"warbijygton:" 37 

Here is the key to Mr. Robinson's whole character, — never 
to refrain from speaking "God's truth" at the right time, 
and not to "keep dark till after election." This it was 
which prcA^ented his life from calmly flowing 

" Kound the cornfield and the hill of vines, 
Honoring the holy bounds of property," — 

thus keeping the dead level of undisturbed prosperity. 
He left "The Lowell Courier" June 12, 1848, and en- 
tered at once into the service and counsel of the wise lead- 
ers and founders of the Free-Soil and Republican party. 
He felt, as he expressed it, that he had done right, — his 
duty ; that all would bo well ; and that he had earned an 
additional title to the respect of all good men, Edward 
L. Ke^-es of " The Roxbury Gazette," in speaking of this 
matter, sa3's, — 

" Mr, Kobinsou of ' The Lowell Courier ' is the first martyr to the 
glorious cause of anti-Taylorism ; and in imitation of the heroic and 
Christian virtues of his Puritan namesake, like Massachusetts, he 
' spurns the bribe.' He has turned himself adrift upon the world, 
rather than renounce Whig principles, and give the lie to all his for- 
mer professions, by descending to the Stygian depths of Taylorism. 
The ability and energy of Mr. Robinson have given a high character 
to 'The Lowell Courier,' the chief honor and profit of which have 
been gathered by others. We thank him for the happiness we have 
derived from his heroic and noble example. The people will do him 
honor. We almost envy him the position he occupies. He can afford 
to set against him a lifetime of penury." 

John G. Whittier, who was an early Free-Soil editor and 
leader, wrote in these words : — 

Deab FeiEjND, — I heartily congratulate thee on thy emancipa- 
tion from the Taylor party. Is it not time that a district-meeting 
were called for the choice of delegates to the Buffalo Convention ? I 
find Liberty men disposed to join heartily in the new movement, 
provided they do not surrender thereby principles which Barnburners 
and Conscience Whigs admit to be just and right. They will not 
contend about men. The Buffalo Convention ought to take its ground 
boldly and strongly ; the bolder, the better. Nothing is to be gained 
now by compromise and evasions. The entire divorce of the gov- 
ernment of the United States from slavery is the only consistent 
platform of action. Cordially thy friend, 

John G. Whittieb. 



38 MEMOIR OF 

The Liberty partj- of Avhich Mr. Whittier speaks was an 
abolition political part}-, that, unlike the Garrisoniaus, ; 
believed in voting, as well as talking, against slavery. It 
began, in 1839, b}- casting three hundred and seven votes, but 
made a gradual increase, until it became merged in the Free- 
Soil party and the Republican party ; its ideas finally getting 
control of the countr}', and effecting emancipation in 1863. 
At the Free-Soil Convention in Worcester, June 28, 1848, 
of which Samuel Iloar of Concord was president, some of 
the best men of Massachusetts assembled, and, in a remark- 
able series of resolutions, committed themselves to the new 
movement. One of these resolutions, beginning " Massachu- 
setts spurns all bribes," is supposed to have been written 
b}"^ Mr. Robinson, who was a secretai'y of the convention. 
Mr. "Whittier, Mr. F. W. Bird, and others who have been 
written to on the subject, have confirmed this supposition. 
Mr. Robinson's first letter in " The Springfield Republican " 
was also written from this convention ; but the ' ' "Warring- 
ton " letters proper did not commence until 18oG, — eight years 
later. At this same convention, Mr. Robinson and Mr. 
Bowles (editor of "The Springfield Republican") met for 
the first time, though not on the same political ground ; for, 
in separating, Mr. Robinson regretted that they were to 
part in politics just as the}' had met for the first time. 
" But never mind," he added : "we shall get together again ; 
clever fellows always do." And they did, seven j-ears after, 
— in 1855. 

"The Boston Daily "Whig" had been started by, or fell 
into the hands of, the Conscience "Whigs, and was supported 
hy tiiem at a great expense for a long period. Charles 
Francis Adams was at one time its political editor, and, 
during its whole existence, wrote very able articles for it. 
Dr. J. G. Palfrey's remarkable series of articles on the 
"Slave-Power" were printed in this paper. In Jul}-, 1848, 
Mr. Robinson succeeded Mr. Adams as editor of "The 
"Whig," and conducted it during the exciting Free-Soil 
campaign of 1848. This was the heyday of party enthusi- 



"WARRINGTON." 39 

asm, and subscribers poured in b}- tliousands. In August, 
the paper was enlarged ; and its name was elianged to ' ' Re- 
publican," because the name " Whig " had been appropriated 
by the new Ta3'lor party, and it was found a serious injury 
to a Free-Soil paper to retain a name which was claimed 
by the supporters of Gen. Taylor. In " The Boston Repub- 
lican," Mr. Robinson first developed his talent for writing 
short spicy paragraphs and squibs. He turned this lance 
against his opponents "The Post" (organ of Milk Street) 
aud the " lying 'Atlas ' " (organ of State Street) . He beard- 
ed these lions in their dens, and defied the cottonocracy, and 
with untiring industry advocated the principles upon which his 
party was founded. Henry Wilson and William S. Damrell 
were the publishers of this paper at this time ; and the latter, 
a little afraid of State and Milk Streets, on more than one 
occasion altered Mr. Robinson's editorials after they were 
sent to the printer. This coming to the notice of Mr. 
Robinson, he threatened to have the type distributed if it 
occurred again ; and he tells of this as an instance of his 
firmness. No one in reading "The Republican" at that 
date would suspect that publisher and editor were not in 
sympathy, or that the editor was constantly annoyed 
throughout the campaign b}' the efforts made to bridle his 
pen, which expressed so honestly the convictions of the 
part}' and of the men for whom he wrote. Thus the cam- 
paign, as far as he was concerned, was fought, aud success- 
fully won ; and, though none of the Free-Soil candidates 
were elected, he felt that a stand had been made at once and 
forever against the slave-power. 

At the Buffalo Convention in August, composed of men 
of all parties who believed in " free soil, free speech, and a 
free world," Martin Van Buren was nominated for President, 
and C. F. Adams for Vice-President. On the morning of 
this convention, ten thousand people were assembled in the 
park at Buffalo ; and at nine o'clock, the hour of the meet- 
ing, the number present had swelled to fifteen or twenty 
thousand. Prayer was off"ered by Samuel J. May of Syra- 



40 MEyiOIR OF 

cuse. At the great Free-Soil ratification meeting held soon 
after in Faneuil Hall, Charles Sumner reported an address 
to the people of the State, embodying the ideas of the new 
party. At this and other similar Free-Soil meetings, all 
the great men of Massachusetts who were identified with 
the Republican party at its inception appeared. There Mr. 
Robinson first met many of these leaders who were to be his 
intimate associates, and whose lifelong careers have made 
the annals of that part}' illustrious. In looking over "The 
Boston Daily Republican" at this time, it is not hard to 
catch the spirit which moved those earnest men to take such 
a bold stand for freedom ; and the heart burns, and the eye 
fills, at reading their names. Most of them have gone to 
their reward, after having accomplished the great object for 
which thc}- so nobly wrought. We have no such names in 
our politics to-daj- ; and a reform greater than that of 
antislavcry, long waiting for just such leaders, looks in vain 
to the "party of reform," because its counsels are ruled 
b}' men, not principles, and its creed is personal government, 
rather than a government of political ethics by and for the 
whole people. 

Mr. Robinson's marriage, which had been deferred for 
some months b}'' the uncertainty of his position, took place 
in Salem on Thanksgiving Daj-, Nov. 30, 1848. lie was 
accused by a newspaper contemporary of having at once 
"married a ladj'' and a farm." Nothing could be farther 
from the truth than the latter part of this assertion ; for, 
though of good New-England parentage, the wheel of her 
family- fortune may be said, as in his case, to have reached 
the lowest point in its descent. In speaking of this lady, 
Mr. F. B. Sanborn, in his account of the silver wedding of 
Mr. and Mrs. Robinson in 1873, saj's, — 

" It was in Lowell that the young journalist met his chosen mate, 
— one who, like himself, knew what it was to work and write. Miss 
H. J. Hanson had been one of those Lowell factory-girls whom 
Dickens saw and praised when he visited the city in 1842. She had 
known Harriet Farley, and had contributed to her magazine, * The 
Lowell Offering.' " 



"WARRINGTON." 41 

Their acquaintance was begun in 1847, through the "per- 
ishable cokimns of a dailj' paper ; " Miss Hanson having sent 
to " The Courier" what in those daj^s was called " a piece 
of poetry." This was followed by other pieces, accepted, as 
the author was informed, "when good enough; for it will 
not do to let the editor step aside to make way for the 
friend." The acquaintance thus formed was followed by 
a friendship which culminated in marriage. After his mar- 
riage, Mr. Robinson continued on "The Boston Daily Repub- 
lican" till February, 1849, when, the campaign-work of the 
paper being over, he was informed in a letter from Mr. Wilson 
that his salary would be cut down five dollars a week, and his 
name as editor taken from ' ' The Republican." Mr. Wilson's 
letter was in these words : — 

W. S. RoBiNsoiir, Esq. 

I>ear Sir, — Much complaint has been made to us about the paper 
since the election, and a change would have been made early iu De- 
cember; but I endeavored to keep you. But, two or three weeks ago, I 
consented, on certain conditions, that a change should be made ; and 
Mr. Smith, who edited "The Hartford Courant," was sent to and 
engaged. He is here, and will go to work next Monday at twelve dol- 
lars per week. I want to do the best I can for you, now the paper is 
in my possession ; and I make you the following offer, which is the 
best I can do : I will give you fifteen dollars per week-; and you can 
change any time, if you think it not for your interest, by giving me a 
few days' notice. You are to stand on an equality with Mr. Smith, — 
neither to appear in the paper as editors, but both to do what you can 
to make the paper what I want it to be. After a few days, I mean to 
be in the office all or neai'ly all the time; and I intend to organize a 
class of writers so as to make the paper what I want. I desire to 
have the control of it, but do not intend at present to have the name 
of any one as editor in it. I may engage Mr. J. G. Palfrey. Ko 
announcement need be made about the change. Mr. Smith expected 
to be the head in the office, but is satisfied with this arrangement. I 
feel friendly to you, you may be assured ; but this is the best arrange- 
ment I can make. Let me know what you can do about it. Our 
expenses are many, and I don't know how we shall succeed: so I 
must get the expenses as low as possible. Yours, 

H. Wilson. 

Chagrined at such unexpected treatment after his success- 



42 MEMOIR OF 

ful campaign-work, and unwilling to be reduced in position 
or to accede to Mr. Wilson's terms, he left "The Republi- 
can ' ' at once, on the same day that he received the letter.^ 
Many of the Free-Soil leaders (C. F. Adams and others) 
regi'etted that he was dismissed so summarilj' ; and some 
Lowell members of that part}', one of whom had said that 
he had made " The Republican " one of the best newspapers 
in the State, urged him to come to that city and start a 
Free-Soil paper. J. G. Abbott, John W. Graves, and others, 
at once raised a sinking-fund of five hundred dollars ; and 
this sum, added to a few huudrcd dollars of his own, enabled 
Mr. Robinson to complete his preparations for starting " The 
Lowell American." During these preparations, the editor 
of " The Republican," having found that reducing editorial 
force does not raise the standard of a newspaper, made over- 
tures for Mr. Robinson's return ; but, determined to say 
what he thought to be right on the subject of slaver}-, he pre- 
ferred to take his chance of a living in a paper of his own. 
He was welcomed back to Lowell b}^ his old Taylor friends, 
who thought him "such a good fellow," and who deplored 
that he could not have gone for Taj'lor, and kept his good 
position there in ' ' The Courier ; ' ' but the}^ confessed he had 
a mind of his own. The first number of " The American " 
came out May 28, 1849, with the following prospectus : — 

" ' The American ' will be a political paper, advocating the princi- 
ples, and supporting the organization, of the Fisee Democracy ^ of 
the state and the nation. A paper is WltUi or Democratic when it 
makes the principles and organization of the "VVliig or Democratic 
party paramount to every other political situation. In this sense 
'The American' will be a Fijee-Soil paper, inasmuch as it will make 

1 In the early part of 1849, the Republican fell into Gen. Wilson's 
hands, and the Emancipator became connected with it. Tlie general 
became its editor. He can tinn liis hand to almost every thing, and, in 
time, would liave become tolerably successful; but I do not think his 
editorial career brought him mucli applause. Perhaps my opinion was 
biassed by the fact that he did not retain mo as editor. — "NV. S. R. in 
1873. 

2 To please the dilTerent elements of the new Free-Soil movement, 
the party was called the Free Democratic party. 



"WARRINGTON." 43 

the question of freedom paramount in all political discussions and 
action, — a question not to be postponed for four years, or one year, 
but to be insisted upon at all times, and at every political hazard. 

" The majority of the people, however, have not yet seen fit to 
declare that the principles of freedom shall guide them in all their 
political action. It will be a prominent object of ' The American ' to 
persuade the people that they are not doing justice to three millions 
of oppressed men in the Southern States, or to themselves as independ- 
ent citizens of a free State, to allow the slave-power to continue its 
rule, to perpetuate its foul system of oppression where it now exists, 
to, extend that system into new Territories, to monopolize the honors 
and offices of the country, and to wield its army and navy and diplo- 
macy against the interests of freedom. We shall try to persuade the 
people that it is high time the rule of the slave-i^ower was discon- 
tinued, and that they had better take hold and do at once what has 
got to be done sooner or later, so that they may have opportunity to 
attend to other national affairs which cannot be satisfactorily settled 
until slavery is disjiosed of." 

There were in the State this year but twelve Free-Soil 
Democratic papers; and "The American" was the last if 
not the least of them.^ The name "American " was a favorite 
one with Mr. Robinson, and was chosen (as he said in 1857) 
' ' long before it had been disgraced by connection with the 
bad doctrines and disgusting practices of the Know-Nothings. 
If it had lived to this da}^, instead of being taken from this 
world of sin and sorrow in its youth, its name would have 
been changed to avoid identification with the gang who soon 
after called themselves 'Americans.' Alas! how little we 

1 List of Free-Soil Democratic papers in Massachusetts in August, 
1849, copied from the Lowell American: — 

EDITOE. 

Republican, Boston, Henry Wilson. 

Spy, Worcester, J. M. Earle. 

Sentinel, Springfield, George W. Myrick. 
Republic, Greenfield, 

Courier, Northampton. Henry S. Gear. 

Freeman, Salem, G. L. Streeter. ' 

Democrat, Taunton, . A. M. Ide. 

Democrat, Dedham, E. G. Robinson. 

Gazette, Roxbury, E. L. Keyes. 

Reporter, North Bridgewater. George Phinney. 

Messenger, Lawrence. G. L. Beckett. 

American, Lowell, W. S. Robinson. 



44 MEMOIR OF 

know, when we name newspapers or children, what occasion 
there may be for making a change in their designation ! " 
This paper lived (and died) three times a week ; and in it 
Mr. Eobinson said exactly- what he believed and thought on 
the gi-eat moral qnestions of the da^'. As he had no one 
to please or defer to but himself, he was not deterred by the 
" Stop m}- paper," and " Stop m}- advertisements," of timid 
souls, who thought he sometimes went too far. The argu- 
ments that " people must live," and " a man must not quar- 
rel with his bread and butter," had no weight with him. To 
do the thing he thought right, to say the words he knew 
ought to be said, — this, for him, was to live; and, to such as 
he, an}- other living " would be true dying." The selections 
from "Tlie American" in the succeeding pages will show 
the character of his writings during these j'ears. He treated 
humorously the subjects of the da}-, and, in shaip and spicy 
paragraphs, held up to ridicule old abuses and the men who 
supported them. It was a model paper in beauty and purity. 
The editor took high ground, and tried to bring the people 
up to his standard. He published no advertisements demor- 
alizing to the community or to the home. He would not 
help men cr}- down their runaway wives, believing, that, in 
nine cases out of ten, there was good reason for their flight. 
He advocated the cause of woman's enfranchisement two 
years before any legislative action whatever was taken upon 
it in the country. Besides his antislavery teachings, he 
advocated the secret-ballot law, so that the poor man could 
vote unchallenged by his rich employer : he did not believe in 
making voters of men, but in making men of voters. He 
urged Charles Sumner's claim as a leader and representative 
of the new party, and ventured then, as he did all through 
his political connection with Mr. Sumner, to point out to 
him what he thought to be the duty of a great leader of the 
people. " The American " at once took rank as a leading 
Free-Soil paper in Massachusetts, and helped, by its wise 
management, to bring the rising party into power. 

C. C. Hazcwell, speaking of "The American" in 1875, 



"WARRINGTON." 45 

says, "Its literary character was high; for Mr. Robinson 
was a wide reader, and had a power of selection rare in one 
so young. Its columns contain what is equal to a volume of 
matter, that can be read with pleasure, even at this time, 
when a new age has come upon the world, — an assertion 
that can be made concerning the contents of \Qvy few Ameri- 
can journals." The English writers were quoted from ; and 
the new poems of Emerson, Whittier, Longfellow, and Low- 
ell, were printed successively as they came out. The thrice- 
wonderful " Biglow Papers " (as Mr. Robinson called them 
in 1875) first began to appear in "The Boston Courier" 
in 1847, commencing with a poem from " Birdofreedom 
Sawin " on the Mexican war. It is difficult, at this dis- 
tance of time, to estimate the influence these papers exerted 
on the politics of the da3\ Without doubt they did as much 
towards the success of the antislavery movement as the 
poems of Whittier, or "Uncle Tom's Cabin," or even the 
Free-Soil party itself. Mr. Robinson relished the keen 
humor and sarcasm of "The Biglow Papers," and was 
never tired of quoting the sayings of Birdofreedom Sawin, 
who, he said, reads better the fourth or fifth time than the 
fii'st. It is a matter of regret that the author of this keen 
analysis of the characters of his time did not try his hand 
on "Warrington," who was one of the most appreciative of 
his readers, and who did so much to bring before the public 
the choice parts of his wonderfully humorous productions. 

On the 7th of March, 1850, Daniel Webster apostatized 
in his great speech of that date ; and, the next July, Presi- 
dent Taylor died. His election to the presidenc^^ seems to 
have done no great harm, and unconsciously to have been 
the means of great good, since it led to the formation of the 
Free-Soil party. He died just in time to defeat his destiu}', 
and give his successor, Millard Fillmore, an opportunity to 
sign the Fugitive-slave Bill, and to make his name forever 
odious in the annals of his countr}'. The Fugitive-slave 
Bill (Mason's), called the "Bloodhound Law," was signed 
Sept. 18, 1850 ; and a great Free-Soil meeting was held 



46 MEMOIR OF 

in Lowell, Oct. 4, to help re-enact God's law against man- 
stealing. Mr. Robinson presided at this meeting ; and 
Shubael P. Adams, Henrj' Wilson, E. A. Stansbury of 
Vermont, and William N. Brewster, spoke. There was great 
commotion in the communit}* ; and meetings were hold all 
over the land to protest against the monstrous wrong, and 
manifest the people's abhorrence of the law and its authors. 
On the 14th of October a meeting was held in Faneuil Hall 
for the denunciation of the law, and the expression of sjm- 
path}- and co-operation with the fugitives. Charles Francis 
Adams presided ; and Frederick Douglass, Theodore Parker, 
Wendell Phillips, and others, spoke. The fugitives them- 
selves held meetings to devise means for their own protec- 
tion, and many of them fled to Canada for safety. Think- 
ing it necessar}' that the people should be acquainted with 
the kidnapping law, and not having room in his paper for 
the whole of it, INIr. Robinson made a brief but correct s}'- 
nopsis of it ; and headed by Daniel Webster's indorsement, 
"To the fullest extent, to the fullest extent" (as the 
great orator had said) , it occupied a conspicuous column in 
" The American ;" and week after week it was commented 
upon by the editor, and held up to scorn and derision. On 
the passage of this infamous law, the slaveholders began at 
once to take measures to reclaim their property. A man- 
stealer appeared in Lowell, Oct. 2, 1850, for the purpose of 
capturing a very respectable man named Booth, said to 
have once been a slave in Virginia, who had lived in the city 
for several years. He, however, happened to be in Montreal 
at the time ; and his friends telegraphed to him to remain 
there. The antislavery newspapers kept each other secretly 
informed when a supposed uian-stealcr was about ; and by 
this means many a poor fugitive escaped, who would other- 
wise have been captured, and returned to slavery. 

In the early part of 1851, three celebrated rescues of 
fugitives occurred, — that of Jerr}' McHenrj- of S3-racuse 
(called the "Jerry Rescue"), the rescue of Shadrach, and 
the Simms case, both in Boston. These inoffensive men 



"WARRINGTON." 4tJ 

were arrested, while pursuing their daily vocations, by men 
who were, or who represented, their pretended owners ; 
and though one of them, Simms, declared that he had been 
free as long as he could remember, and that his father was a 
Spaniard, it made no difference. His claimant was believed, 
while his own testimony was counted as nothing. Wherever 
the man-stealer appeared, he could procure the warrant of 
any twopenny commissioner against anj' colored man ; and 
the majesty of the Fugitive-slave Bill was enforced without 
judge or jurj'. The people became incensed at these out- 
rages ; and there was a general uprising of antislavery 
sentiment. A convention was called in Tremont Temple, 
April 8, 1851, of all citizens of Massachusetts, without 
distinction of party, opposed to the "Fugitive-slave Law." 
The call was signed by S. C. Phillips, Horace Mann, J. G. 
Palfrey, C. F. Adams, S. G-. Howe, J. G. Whittier, and 
others ; and resolutions were passed to the effect that it is 
" impossible to aid by word or deed in remanding a fugitive 
slave to bondage without aiding to rob him of an inalienable 
right, and thus sinning against Christian light and against 
God." At the November election of 1850, the Whigs were 
beaten by a coalition of Democrats and Free-Soilers ; and 
" The American " came out with a leader on the " Death of 
the Whig Party." 1 

1 This was premature, as it lived till 1854, when Know-Nothingism 
came up, and swept it out of existence. — "W. S. E. in 1858. 

There was an opportunity just before this time to give a little dig at 
a Wliig postmaster, which was improved as follows : — 

North Chelmsford, June 14, 1850. 
William S. Kobinson, Esq. 

Dear Sir,— Why do j'oii persist in sending the American to Benj. "WUcox 
after having been informed that there is no such man iu this place? 

Youis truly, 

Z. Gay, Jun., Postmaster. 
[Answer.] 

Lowell, June 14, 1830. 
Z. Gay, Jun., Esq., Postmaster. 

Dear Sir, — I am not aware that it is any part of your ofHcial business to become 
informed of the reason why I " persist in sending the American to Benj. Wil- 
cox: " therefore I very respectfully decline to answer your interrogatory. 

Yours truly, 

William S. Kobixsos. 



48 MEMOIR OF 

During these great and stirring events, " The American" 
came out boldly-, and spoke God's truth at the right time, 
though subscribers fell off, and corporations trembled in the 
balance. Lowell was still Whig to the backbone, and her 
sinews were of cotton. Iler mills were owned b3' merchants 
anxious to keep peace with the cotton-planters. Many 
of the churches and the clergy were either proslavery, 
or would not leave their proslavery parties to vote with 
the party of free soil and free men. A Rev. Mr. T. in 
Lowell said that he would " vote the "Whig ticket if it were 
steeped up to the hub in slavery." It was a hard fight for 
the poor editor to wage against this great wrong and all the 
"cotton lords" who supported it. The expenses of the 
ofDcc must be paid, and a little spared for home uses. To 
read the bold utterance of this independent journalist during 
these years, no one would suspect the struggle with poverty 
that was going on behind the scenes, nor 3^et the sensitive 
and delicate nature of the writer who -wielded this stinging 
pen. " The American " was conducted in the most econom- 
ical manner ; for its editor's axiom was, that economy is 
honesty in people of small means. He felt that he was 
responsible, in part, for money belonging to others, Avhich 
ought to be judiciously handled. He himself " worked at 
the case," and frequently put his articles in type without 
writing them out beforehand. He wrote all the editorial 
matter for " The American," and, with a little help at home, 
read all the proof, and made the selections. 

On commencing housekeeping in Lowell at the time " The 
American" was started, Mr. Robinson had requested his 
wife to keep an expense-book ; so that, if the paper did not 
succeed, the friends who had subscribed might know what 
had been done with their mone^-. In looking over this book, 
I find that the whole expenditure for the famil}-, during the 
three years and eight mouths that "The American" was 
published, did not exceed the average of four hundred 
dollars a j'car. This included, during those years, house- 
rent, fuel, and food for a family of four or five persons. 



' ' WARRING TON." 49 

Not much money was spent for clothing ; the editor's supply 
being hardly equal to the demand, and the wife's allowance 
being two calico dresses a year. She did her own work, and 
took care of her babies. Books, the principal need, were 
plenty; for they were sent to the editor for review. There 
was no church-going, for there was literally "nothing to 
wear; " and though " the bab^^'s milk was (never) watered 
that your Helicon may flow," nor the chamber-doors taken 
down and burned to keep the editor warm while he wrote, 
he lived, as Thoreau said, " close to the bone," and, unhin- 
dered by the impedimenta of life, fought his way up the 
heights of journalism. 

The steps b}' which we ascend or go forward are often 
ignored. And here let me not forget to pay a tribute to 
the mother (of the wife) , without Avhose constant care and 
self-sacrifice this part of Mr. Robinson's life-work could not 
have been accomplished. It was through her help and her 
labor, at that time unrequited, that the famil}' expenses were 
kept so low, and the paper saved an earl^- death before its 
mission was accomplished. It is the fashion to decrj- 
mothers-in-law ; but, to the last hours of his life, Mr. Robin- 
son spoke of this one (still living, thank God ! to read these 
lines) as being good enough to redeem the sins of a whole 
generation of mothers-in law. In poverty, in sickness, in 
prosperity, and in defeat, she was the same to him, — a 
mother ; and her beloved face was one of the last upon which 
his kind eyes looked in life. It is such women as these, 
widowed or single, whom " God setteth solitary in families," 
Avho cement the domestic fabric, aud whose influence is 
unseen, and oftentimes unappreciated till it is taken awa}- 
aud the walls of home begin to crumble. 

It was in these years of self-denial that Mr. Robinson 
first tried to teach his younger companion the real meaning 
and duty of life, — that it was not to live for ourselves alone, 
or for those we love, but to forget ourselves, to aim at a 
higher life, aud to do some one thing to make the world 



50 MEMOIR OF 

better, wiser, and happier for our having lived in it. This 
was his creed then, and to tlie end of his life. The struggles 
of an antislavcr^' editor of those early days can hardly be 
appreciated at this distance of time ; and, if any apologj* is 
necessar}' for these glimpses of the home-life of ]Mr. Robin- 
son, the excuse must be, that, in so complete and many-sided 
a life as his, the home-side can hardly be left out, or passed 
over lightly. He looked at what might be called depriva- 
tions philosophically, and the narrow economies of life did 
not trouble him. His own tastes and habits were simple; 
he knew uotliing of luxuries ; and to the appointments of 
home and person be was iuditferent. During his whole life 
he practised in all things " that temperance which is mod- 
est}'." To be at home in the presence of his famil}', with 
his books and his pen, — this was his idea of a feast and of 
riches ; and to get his living honestly and squarely, as his 
ancestors had done before him, — this Avas his desire. 

As I have said, the cotton lords were against him ; and 
although kind and appreciative friends in Lowell and other 
places remembered him, sending monc}' and subscribers 
(better than money), which gave relief to his trusting friends 
the butcher and baker, the struggle grew daily harder and 
harder. Among these friends was one old Concord sub- 
scrilwr, who sent annual!}' a turkey (a rara avis at his table) 
to his "political guide, philosopher, and friend." Some 
friends of the New-England Protective Union sent him a 
barrel of flour " as a slight evidence of tlieir desire to 
encourage honest millers in physics, ethics, and politics." 
Whatever other success such a newspaper as "The Ameri- 
can" might attain, it could never be a pecuniar}' success ; 
and, in spite of all sucli assistance, the struggle grew too 
hard to bear. At last, worn out 1>\' work at the case and at 
the desk, wearied in trying to collect bills and pay them, 
and of skulking down back-streets to avoid a creditor, he 
was stricken down by typhoid-fever, and did not leave his 
room for eleven weeks. This sickness was, without doubt, 



"WARRINGTON." 51 

caused ontirel}' hy business troubles. Business, so called, 
Mr. Robinson did not understand ; and doing business 
without means, for an honest man to whom a debt is a daily 
horror, was enough to make him "sick and a-wearied." ^ 
Gail Hamilton sa3-s that ' ' most authors are innocent of any 
business capacit}', and entirel}' destitute of anj- practical 
abilit}-." This applies very well to editors and newspaper- 
writers of Mr. Robinson's stamp. Such a one is as depend- 
ent on his dail}' task as the shoemaker or the carpenter : but 
he is apt to forget his pecuniar}^ interest in the ardor of his 
calling ; and, while he spins from his life and brain the 
material for his existence, he often does not exact a price 
from those who reap the reward of his labors. He sits in 
his office, "on his three-legged stool, pegging away," and 
is expected to be a fountain of information for ca' erj'bod}' — 
read}- to answer all questions, and write on ever}' subject — 
for nothing. Men of other professions and occupations come 
to him (particularly about election-time) ; and, having im- 
bibed what knowledge they require, they proceed to make 
those powerful speeches or moves which cany the elections 
of the da}'. "'There's a divinity ^ doth hedge" a lawyer's 
or a doctor's office ; and whoever comes within its sacred 
precinct to ask ever so small a question in law or physic 
is expected to pay for the privilege, since these professions 
have the people at their mercy. Do men of these or of other 
professions offer the editor for his opinion any part of the fees 
so easily earned ? Yet he has earned their fee by the infor- 
mation given, as much as the carpenter who drives the nail, 

1 At the most dangerous period of Mr. Robinson's illness, be called 
his wife to him one day, and asked her to show Dr. Graves (one of the 
gentlemen who had heljied him start the American) her expense-book, 
that he uught see how little had been spent in the family since the 
paper was started, and that the money he and other friends had sub- 
scribed had not been paid for any thing outside the pajDcr. When the 
doctor had examined the accounts, and had seen upon how little four 
people had lived (less than four hundred dollars a year), he looked 
very umch surprised, and did not say one word. 

2 Mercury, perhaps, the god of conveying. 



52 MEMOIR OF 

or the lawyer or doctor who imitates Bunsby in his opin- 
ion. The poor editor must go on, however (or did in 
"Lowell American" times), spinning, like the spider, 
from his inner consciousness, the webs in which others 
catch their prey. 



"WARRINGTON." 53 



CHAPTER V. 

FEEE-SOIL EDITOR {Continued). 

[1852-1856.] 

" Say not the struggle nought availeth; 
The labor and the wounds are vain : 
The enemy faints not, nor faileth ; 
And as things have been they remain. 

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars : 

It may be, in yon smoke concealed, 
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers, 

And, but for you, laossess the field." 

ARTntJK Hugh Clough. 

On Mr. Robinson's recover}', his brother, anxious for his 
worldl}' success, wrote to him, advising him to commence 
the study of law. He said, "Before 1856, j'ou will have 
a profession that will take care of j^ou. Your present 
profession will not be growing vmy better, while the law will 
be more and more remunerative till yon are sixty 3'ears old. 
If you look around you for the most comfortable people, j-ou 
will find they are the law3-ers." Mr. Robinson's opinion 
of what are called the three learned professions is well 
known. He once said, that the three professions, so called, 
were a curse to the community. The lawyer ruins 3-ou 
pecuniaril}- ; the doctor kills 3'our body ; and the minister 
tries to kill 3'our soul. The last-named is the least harmful, 
however ; because the soul cannot be killed finall3-. " Great 
is the science and practice of the law," said he with some 
contempt ; and although it was said of him that he was 
capable of conducting an argument with the ablest reason- 



54 MEMOIR OF 

ers, and in applied logic was nc^■el• known to be worsted, he 
yet preferred to follow his chosen vocation of jonrnalisni 
(not yet a profession), because he loved it, and was suited 
to it. Said he, " The editor's labor is next to the priest's 
and the schoolmaster's, if not before the former. I wish I 
were more worth}' of it. I have no doubt, not the least, 
that ni}' influence is greater through ' The Lowell Ameri- 
can ' than that of any five clergymen in Lowell through 
their pulpits ; and I have no doubt that this influence is 
quite as salutar}- as that of the minister. The good editor 
is trul}- a great public benefactor ; though, like other bene- 
factors, he is not thanked oftentimes." Journalism had not 
then become the "third estate;" but he prophesied even 
then gi'cat things of the profession, and thought it destined 
to l)CCome the highest of all callings. lie never regretted 
having continued in it ; and unlike man}' who go to their dail}' 
writing reluctantl}^, as to a task, he resumed his pen each 
day eagerly, and with pleasure. If he had chosen to be 
"comfortable" in a nione^'-making profession, his countrj' 
never would have known the pen of " Warrington." 

Mr. Robinson was elected to the legislature of 18o2 on 
the coalition ticket. In writing home from the legislature, 
he says, — 

"I am glad, on many accounts, that I am chosen; sorry on but 
few. I love my home, and do not like to be away from it; but I 
shall get a little money and much knowledge, and sball extend my 
acquaintance, and by tbat means, I hope, my facilities for getting 
along in the world. In case the newspaper should not afford me a 
good living, an extensive acquaintance among leading men will (if I 
behave well), perhaps, give mo other chances in the world. Coalition 
works well. I voted for a Whig senator, knowing that the coalition 
candidate was a bad man; six or seven others did the same; and 
fourteen would not vote at all. I was amused at tlie leadiness of 
some men to shrink from responsibility. The 'dicker' is not yet 
concluded ; but it is pretty much arranged that the Democrats have 
the governor and lieutenant-governor, and the Free-Soilers the 
secretary of state and the sergcant-at-anns, and six out of the nine 
councillors. If this arrangement is carried out, the Free-Soilers will 
have a controlling power, and veto in all executive appointments. I 
am a member of the confereace committee on the part of the Free- 
Soil party." 



"wabbington:' 55 

During the session of the legislature of 1852, Mr. Rob- 
inson wrote letters from the State House for '•' The Ameri- 
can," and made a long report on the ten-hour law, in which 
he was much interested. Ma}' 4 he writes, " The vote was 
taken on the Personal- liberty Bill. "We beat the Whigs and 
fogy Democrats b^^ three majoritj- ; reconsidered, and beat 
them again b}' five ; altogether unexpected, and took ever}'- 
body b}' surprise." Mr. Robinson was a good speaker 
at this time ; and his contemporaries remember to have been 
struck with his readiness in debate, — a power which he 
afterwards almost wholh' lost. Feb. 22 he made a speech 
in the legislature upon the bill to amend the free-ballot 
law. If he had continued in the line of speech-making, life 
might have been made easier to him ; but he had a contempt 
for "speechifying" and speech-makers, and, as he said, 
preferred to write speeches, and have others deliver them. 
He had the opportunity all through his life of hearing his let- 
ters quoted (without quotation-marks), and his opinions and 
witticisms given to the public, without due credit to their 
rightful owner. He says of this matter (in 18G3), " One or 
two of m}' own productions of 3'ears long past are in print 
as speeches delivered b}- the Hon. Mr. So-and-So : and they 
may, for aught I know, find their way into some future selec- 
tion of American orator}^ ; and m}' boy may declaim his 
father's rhetoric with a glow of enthusiasm, which would be 
heightened if he knew to whom to credit it." 

On Mr. Sumner's election, in 1851,^ there had been gi-eat 
rejoicings among the antislaver}- people. He did not speak 
in Congress quite so soon as some of the impatient ones 
thought he should; and the editor of " The American," in 
whose house Mother Goose had begun to furnish household 
words, in a humorous article inquii'ed about " the little bo}' 
that went after the sheep." Mr. Sumner's reason for this 
seeming delay was, partly, ill-health and the recent death of 

1 Mr. Sumner had just votes enough to elect him. Robert Eantoul, 
Mr. Sumner's predecessor, also had just votes enough at the time of hi? 
election. 



56 MEMOIR OF 

Mr. "Webster. His first long speech was sent to ]Mr. Robin- 
son with tlie following note : — : 

Senate Chambeu, Jan. 28, 1852. 
My deab Sir, — I have sent you a correct copy of my speech, 
made yesterday, on the practical question of lands. My colleague ' 
is now speaking on the agitating question of the compromises. On 
this subject the time will come for me; but it is not now. 

Faithfully yours, 

CiiAKLES Sumner. 

"The Lowell American" had great influence during its 
life in the councils of the rising Republican party ; and man}- 
aspiring politicians came to the little house where the editor 
lived, to talk matters over, and get the voice of the paper 
in their behoof. Hcnr}- Wilson, who had found himself a 
more successful speaker than editor, came, a 3'oung aspirant 
for congressional honors,- with Anson Burlingamc, to make 
speeches and talk over the situation, and devise measures, 
through party methods, for the abolition of slavery. In 
the room which served as parlor, libraiy, and nurser}-, 
several gentlemen met one night in the fall of 1852. 
Burlingamc had been speaking in Lowell, and probably 
Wilson ; and the}' began at once in conversation to dilate on 
the wrongs of the slave, the indifference of the AVhig party 
to the condition of things, and the need there was for imme- 
diate action. The young wife sat there, minding the baby 
in the cradle, and trying to make " auld claes look amaist 
as weel's the new;" listening, with her soul on fire, to the 
oft-repeated tale — with which all autislavery people were 
then familiar — of the poor fugitives who had been returned 
to their inhuman masters. At the close of this exciting 
conference, which she had heard silently (for women in those 
days were said not to be capable of politics), one of the 
gentlemen, speaking to her for the first time during the visit, 
remaiked — on the unpleasantness of the weather. Charles 
Sumner, just elected, also came here, a young man, to advo- 

1 John Davis. 

2 Defeated by the late Tappan "Went worth of Lowell. 



"WARRINGTON." 57 

cate the cause of freedom in Lowell. He was not then a 
handsome man, but had a noble presence. His head had 
the bold and upright poise of a 3'oung lion ; and he had a 
fashion of tossing his hair from his forehead while speak- 
ing, b}' a motion of his head, that was ver}' striking.-^ 

Mr. Robinson's writings at this time did not evince the 
reasoning powers and analj'sis of character shown in later 
3'ears ; but they Avere extremel}- humorous. Mr. C. C. Haze- 
well says of them, that if he had adopted the spelling after- 
wards used by John Phoenix, Artemus Ward, Josh Billings, 
and other American humorists, he would have been the most 
famous of them all. B}' reference to articles written during 
these 3'ears, it will be seen that he did practise a little of the 
style of spelling used b}- those authors. In the Stebbins 
Biographj- will be found a reference to Miser}- X Roads. 
This ma}' have suggested Confederate X Roads to Petroleum 
V. Nasb}', P. M. But, while Mr. Robinson delighted in 
humorous writing, it was not his idea of true writing to 
amuse the people only, but to instruct and to guide them. 
He delighted in politics as " the science of government," 
and could not illustrate his thought by humorous writing and 
bad spelling. 1852 was the great Stebbins year, when this 
famous imaginary character was put up as an independent 
candidate for President in opposition to Scott and Pierce.^ 

Mr. Robinson had been re-elected to the legislature of 



1 An ambrotype taken in Lowell in 1852, and now in possession of 
Mr. Robinson's family', gives an excellent idea of Mr. Sumner's looks 
at that time. 

2 In answer to a letter on the subject of the Carpet Bag and Ensign 
Stebbins, Mr. B. P. Shillaber wi-ites, — 

" With regard to ISIr. Robinson'? writings for the Carpet Bag, I know that he 
was much interested in the Stebbins contest, and contributed several of the 
best articles in favor of that puissant warrior's claims (that of the Saugus Nomi- 
nating Convention, I particularly remember, was capital, satirizing as it did the 
doings of meetings of that character); and I recall the heartiness with which ho 
entered into the spirit of the thing, seeing in it a capital satire on the rage for 
military candidates wliich prevailed at the time, two being opposeil to the ' Hero 
of the Alamo' and of the 'Aroostic' The creator of Ensign Stebbins was 
Benjamin Drew; and Jolui C. Moore, Mr. Robinson, and myself were the only 
ones that I recall who helped on the myth." 



58 • MEMOIR OF 

1853 on the same coalition ticket with B, F. Butler ; 
and in March of that year he writes, " I intend to be 
a candidate for clerk of the Constitutional Convention. 
I think I shall be chosen. Perhaps this will be a step 
towards the clerkship of the House next winter." Ma}' 4 
he was elected, and Avrites, " I hope I shall do the work 
well, and get honor as well as profit. Home seems pleas- 
anter than ever after these long absences ; and the little 
bab}' shows new beauties (to sa}' nothing of new stubborn- 
esses) ever}' da}". I am glad she has got some temper, 
hoping we shall be able to control it." Mr, Robinson wrote 
letters to " The New- York Evening Post" from this conven- 
tion. Of the Journal of the Convention, N. P. Banks (the 
president) said at the time, that it " was made better than 
any other ever made in the House ; not as to penmanship, 
— there it is inferior to man}- others, — but as to style and 
fulness." Mr. Robinson, as clerk, made two copies in his 
own handwriting of the proceedings of this convention, — 
one for the printer, and a duplicate, in case any accident 
should happen to the one in the possession of the State. ^ 

The year 1852 had been a very gloomy year for " The 
American." In spite of Mr. Robinson's legislative and 
other earnings, which had been used to pay its debts, the 
paper was slowly running down. Other newspapers, more 
suited to the tastes and politics of the people, were preferred 
to it ; and the editor was at his wits' end to keep it alive. 
He was loath to give it up, because he thought the people 
needed its teachings, and their leaders its admonitions : so 
he struggled on, while tlie family grew larger, and its 
expenses increased to actually §401 a year. There was no 
thought of repudiating debts, or failing to pay them at ten 
cents on a dollar, until the pressure became very hard to 
bear. But, in spite of all this, the editor bade adieu to the 
closing year, and welcomed in a new one, in the following 
cheerful editorial : — 

1 This duplicate copy has been preserved, and lias been presented, 
since Mr. Robinson's death, to the Town Library iu Concord, Mass. 



"WARRINGTON."- 59 

"GOOD-BY AISTD GOOD-MOKXIXG. 

" 'Goocl-by, 1852! You brought us all something good, — to some, 
dear wives, dear children, dear friends, good books, choice compan- 
ions, rare season of pleasure ; and, if to others you brought afflic- 
tions, — as you muat to some, — it was not your fault ; and you 
brought consolations and solaces, which did all that could be done to 
heal the wound you made. 

" 'Good-morning, 1853! You ai-e welcome. Hope you are well. 
How are Mrs. 1853 and all the little 185.3's?' — 'All well; but don't 
detain me. I've a great deal to do. I have got my budget of joys and 
sorrows, cares and blessings, all ordered by the wise and good Father, 
who is too kind to tell his children in advance whether he has joy or 
grief in store for them. Let me pass on, or Susan and Walter will bo 
impatient for the marriage-license which is peeping out of my bag. 
Alas ! there is a sadder message for them ; but they must not know it. 
Good-by, sir!' " 

"The Lowell American" stopped just after the close of 
the year 1853. It had fought a good fight for nearly' four 
3'ears, and in it the editor had said his say to friend and foe. 
He had offended eminent men, liberals like himself, with 
whose methods he did not agree, and had lost their " patron- 
age." No longer their "guide, philosopher, and friend" 
(for the State had gone back into Whig hands), still he was 
undaunted ; for he had done his work well. " And so dies," 
said the editor in his farewell leader, " this living, independ- 
ent, democratic, antislaver}' newspaper, and leaves not a 
political paper in all Middlesex County for nearly- two hun- 
dred thousand people to read — neither Whig nor Demo- 
crat — which is not socially, morall}', and politically dead 
in hunker trespasses and sins." An offended liberal stopped 
his paper in November, 1853, just in time ; and Mr. Robin- 
son answered the letter, giving a short account of his experi- 
ence. The correspondence was as follows : — 

W. S. EoBiNSON, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — My only motives for receiving " The Lowell American" 
at all were two : first, the hope that it would serve the antislavery 
cause ; second, the good-will I entertained to its editor. Inasmuch 
as for some time I have ceased to regard it as valuable in the first 
light, and now I perceive the good-will not reciprocated, I trust you 



60 MEMOIR OF 

will see the fitness of my asking to be excused from taking it. If 
there is any thing clue on account of it, I will cheerfully pay it on 
your informing me of the amount. 

I am very respectfully yours, 



Dear Sir, — I have never looked upon my subscril)ers as patrons 
in any sense of the word, but have always recognized their perfect 
right to come and go at plea^^ure, without apology. You might as 
well have asked to be excused from again buying of your grocer or 
butcher. As you have sought occasion, where none existed, for 
disparaging my labors in the antislavery cause, I have this to say 
in reply; viz., that, for the last four years and a half, I have given 
ail my time, all I have received from my paper, and two thousand 
dollars which I have received from other sources, to the work of 
establishing an antislavery newspaper in Lowell. If you, sir, have 
done more, of which I entertain considerable doubt, you have not, at 
any rate, sacrificed more. If I have not served the antislavery cause 
in any other way, I have preserved my own freedom of thought and 
of speech towards all men, whether political friends or foes. I am in 
holies to be able to do this in future; and, although I entertain no 
fears whatever on that account, I prefer not to be under the slightest 
temptation, and therefore enclose with this the sum of one dollar and 
sixty-three cents, due to you on account, and remain 

Very respectfully yours, &c., 

W. S. RoBiNSOx. 

In January, 1851, "The Commonwealth" (not Mr. 
Slack's), a daily Free-Soil paper, was started. In it "The 
Chronotype" (Elizur Wright's paper), "The Emancipator," 
and "The Boston Republican," all were merged. J. B, Alle\-, 
Samuel Downer, and others, had, at different times, the con- 
trol of it ; and among its editors were Joseph Lyman, Charles 
List, Robert Carter, and Dr. S. G. Ilowe. In 1854 it was 
edited b}' J. D. Baldwin (now of " Tiic Worcester Spy") ; 
and, on the death of " The American," Mr. Robinson was 
engaged by him as assistant editor. From Mr. Robinson's 
Diary and Letters I am able to quote an account of this 
newspaper : — 

"'The Commonwealth' exercised during its career more political 
influence than any other Boston paper: indeed, the political power 
of these antislavery papers has always been very great. The Whig 
party of Massachusetts was broken down mainly by the party which 



''WARRINGTON." 61 

they represented. ' The Commonwealth ' sustained the coalition 
(against the Whigs), and did much towards making it successful. At 
last came political sorrows, and in battalions. The Convention of 
1853 was defeated, and the State passed into "Whig hands : these hands 
were, however, too weak to hold the reins ; and Know-Jfothingisra came 
■up in 18.j4, and swept the party out of existence. ' The Common- 
wealth ' did not countenance the new party. Its proprietors got tired 
of the figlit, and sold out to certain persons who proposed to establish 
a Maine-law newspaper. This they did, and called it ' The Tele- 
graph.' Richard Hildreth became responsible editor; and among 
those employed in writing were Eobert Carter and myself. ' The 
Telegraph ' was the first paper to announce the names of the candi- 
date nominated by the Know-Nothings in the secret senatorial and 
congressional conventions. Mr. Hildreth left after a while, and I had 
principal charge of it until after the election of 1855. In spite of 
remonstrances and lamentations, the paper opposed Gardner and Gard- 
nerism ; and, after the election (of Gardner) in 1855, it proposed to 
continue the contest; but one of the proprietors, who had become 
disgruntled by reason of the rejection of some of his Gardnerite lu- 
cubrations, dissented from this policy, and I was deposed. ^ I think 
it entirely safe to say that ' The Commonwealth ' and ' Telegraph ' 
have rejiresented the popular opinion of the State on political affairs 
more nearly than any other paper in Boston. There was continual 
strife in the counsels of ' The Telegraph ' between its founders and 
its writers ; ^ the latter having very positive opinions on the jury law, 
which did not allow them to yield to the demand for its repeal. Two 
or three of the stockholders were actually driven out of the concern 
by its perversity on this question and on the subject of Know- 
Nothingism." 

1 In an article on the Kepublican party, Mr. Robinson says, "This 
was written and published the day after Eockwell's defeat in 1853. It 
was an atteiuiit to keep up the antislavery fight, for v.hich, by the influ- 
ence of "William B. Spooner and others, I was afterwards deposed frcm 
the editorship of the Telegraph, tliough retained as a wi'iter." 

- The proprietor of the Telegraph said to I\Ir. Robinson in the early 
part of June, 1855, " In giving out copy to-morrow, avoid any tiling 
of a part^- character. Orders are strict from headquarters on this point: 
your interest and mine are involved." As Mr. Robinson's idea of tlie 
" headquarters " of an antislavery paper was a little different from that 
of this timid jiroprietor, he paid no attention to what he called this 
impudent request, but went on publishing article after article in pro- 
test against Gardnerism. This frightened the owners of the paper more 
and more; for they feared it would not sell, if opiiosed to the gov- 
ernor ; and they thought the editor might be more conciliatory, and 
only speak his mind so far as expediency would allow. 



62 MEMOIR OF 

In June, 1854, Antony Burns was arrested on a false 
pretext ; his pretended owner, Charles F. Suttle of Virginia, 
having procured a warrant from Edward G. Loring, judge 
of probate of Suffolk Count}', and United States slave com- 
missioner. ''The Commonwealth," from which extracts 
will be found at this date, was full of this kidnapping mat- 
ter. There was intense excitement over it in the communit}', 
and the antislavory people (or " agitators") were filled with 
sadness and indignation. To prevent the rendition of Burns, 
Theodore Parker preached; Sumner, Phillips, S. G. Howe, 
F. W. Bird, and many others, spoke ; antislavcry editors 
wrote ; and men and women worked and prayed ; but in vain. 
Massachusetts was humiliated. Guarded bj' armed police and 
military force, the disgraceful procession marched down State 
Street — amid the hisses and contemptuous outcries of the 
crowd, and in the face of the mourning flags ^ flung from 
many windows — to the revenue-cutter "Morris," ordered 
b}' Pres. Pierce to bear back into servitude this helpless 
man.- A movement was at once started by Mr. Robinson 
(by an article in "The Commonwealth"), which resulted in 
the removal of Judge Loring four years after " for disobedi- 
ence to the Personal-liberty Law in permitting the kidnap- 
ping of Antony Burns." He could not be " conciliator}- " 
when the " poor dumb bondsmen's cause," for which he had 
labored all his life, was trembling in the balance, and a 
part}- and a governor known to be hostile to all its needs 
were coming into power ; and so he wrote on steadily for 
the removal of the unjust judge, for the defeat of the 
Know-Notliings, and for the cause of human rights. It was 
said of him at this time, that there was hardly any news- 
pai)or position to which he miglit not have aspired, if he had 
been less rabid, and more willing to be on the popular side, 
and (as the old song has it) "curchy, curchy, up and do«'n," 

1 Six were flung from the oflice of tlie Commonwealth. 

2 He was bought subsequently by some Northern people, and went 
to Canada, ^vhe^e he beoanio pastor of a colored church in St. Catha- 
rine's, and died of consumption in 18G2, 



"WAREIJSTGTOK" 



63 



to public opinion. Perhaps the fact of his working very 
cheap — clieaper than a less scrupulous writer would have 
done — helped him to retain his position as writer, and to 
continue, as Mr. Hazewell said, to enliven "The Telegraph" 
with "his rich humor and sparkling wit." 

The Know-Nothing or American party (as Plenry Wilson 
calls it in his "Rise and Fall of the Slave-Power") was 
well described by llufus Choate in a letter to a friend. 
Speaking of the "Hiss" legislature of 1855 (as the first 
Know-Nothing legislature was called, on account of the in- 
famous transactions of a member of that name) , Mr. Choate 
says, — 

" Your estate is gracious that keeps you out of hearing of our 
pontics. Any tiling more low, obscene, feculent, the manifold heavings 
of history have not cast up. We shall come to the worship of onions, 
cats, and things vermlculate. Kenown and grace are dead. ' There's 
nothing serious in mortality.' Bless your lot, which gives you volca- 
noes, earthquakes, feather-cinctured chiefs, and dusky sights of the 
tropics." 

In addition to Mr. Choate's numerous adjectives, this 
party might be called a paradoxical or seemingl}^ absurd 
party. It was founded on prejudice of birth, and prejudice of 
color ; and while it allowed none but native- American whites 
to hold office, or sit in its councils, it refused the least ves- 
tig'e of a right to all native- American blacks. Yet many 
antislavery politicians, for various reasons, Avere willing to 
join this secret organization, and be elected to office during 
its administration. With all its faults, of which secrecy 
was not the least, the Know-Nothing part}' " builded better 
than it knew " in one respect ; for it helped to drive the last 
nail in the coffin of the defimct Whig party. At a Republi- 
can convention in Concord, October, 185G, a coalition was 
proposed between that party and the Know-Nothings. IMr. 
Robinson opposed this attempt, thinking that the Republican 
party was strong enough even then to stand alone ; and he 
was so vexed at the course pursued b}' Ilenr^' Wilson at the 
State Convention (held in Worcester a little later), that, 




64 MEMOIR OF 

when he returned home to Concord, he entered his house, 
and, before speaking to a niciuber of his fiimily, went up to 
an uiifrained picture of Mr. Wilson, pulled it down from 
the wall, tore it straight in two, and threw it upon the floor. 
This act created great consternation among the throe little 
children playing together on the floor ; for they had never 
before seen such an exhibition of anger from their mild- 
mannored father. In a letter to Mr. Wilson, published in 
"The Worcester Spy," Mr. Robinson gives his opinion of 
this disgraceful coalition. He thought it was " formed by 
men who threw awa}' the election of 1856 by dabbling in 
the dirt}' pool of Know-Nothiugism ; or, if they did not do 
this, they pursued a cautious, timid, and time-serving 
policy." What was left of the Free-Soilers as a part}' seems 
to have been swallowed up by this and other coalitions ; 
but its elements, being indestructible, re-appeared again in 
the " Straight Republicans," the nucleus of that great party 
which was to follow a 3ear or two later, and find a name in 
1859. Mr. Robinson never had the least aflilialion with the 
Know-Nothings, whose secrets and whose tricks he hated 
cordially. He attacked them at all points, from the gov- 
ernor down to his lowest subordinates, and expressed his 
opinions in "The Telegraph" and in "The Springfield 
Republican," where the "Warrington" letters began to 
appear in 1856. He was more than reconciled that his name 
should not appear as the editor of " The Telegraph," since 
he could not saj- in it all he desired, as he had done in " The 
Lowell American." The part}' hated him cordially in return 
for his hostilit}- ; and the fight was so bitter at times, that 
Mr. Rolnnson was warned b}' friends that something malig- 
nant would be done if he kept it up. He replied, that he 
had "got the Know-Nothings almost killed off, and he 
thought he could finish them." 

When Fremont was defeated in November, 1856, b)- James 
Buchanan,' the antislavery people were verj' much troubled 

1 Buchanan's administration lias not a principle to its back; not even 
the poor one of rewarding its friends, and pnuisliing its enemies.— 
Warrington in New -York Tribune in 1858. 



"WABRINGTON." 65 

and disheartened about the final issue of the slavery ques- 
tion. Charles Sumner had been struck down (Ma}', 1856) 
in his seat in Congress by Preston S. Brooks of South Caro- 
lina, and "was thereby disabled from taking his noble part in 
the contest. Mr. Eobinson was not so much discouraged 
as many others ; for he saw the cause had gained a great 
deal with the people during ten years ; and his axiom was 
then, as ever after, that the people are alwaj's to be trusted 
in all great movements. In 1856, besides writing constantly 
for "The Telegraph," he wrote letters for "The Fitchburg 
Reveille " during the session of the legislature, and went to 
"Worcester for a few weeks to write for " The Sp}'." While 
there, his articles attracted much attention, and were thought 
to have been written by Judge Allen, on account of the 
" gun-metal " in them. 

In August, 1854, to be near his mother, now old and 
feeble, Mr. Robinson had moved to Concord, Mass., into a 
house belonging to John Thoreau, the father of John and 
Henr}- Thoreau. He had always been very fond of his 
native town, and had kept up his interest in it, saying that 
it was a good place to be born in, and would be a good 
place to return to some time. On one occasion he said 
jocosel}', that any thing, however feeble and uninteresting, 
that had the name of Concord upon it, would always be inter- 
esting to him ; and it was indeed a delightful change for him 
to remove from the bustling City of Spindles to the quiet and 
repose of old Concord. He lived there during the j-ears 
1854-56 and part of 1857, and was emplo^'ed at a stated 
salar}' in the profession that he loved. His famil}^, includ- 
ing his mother and his mother-in-law, were comfortably 
provided for ; and the old ' ' Lowell American ' ' debts were 
paid. Here the family' were reclothed : a new Sunday suit 
was bought for himself (the first since his marriage) , and 
leghorn hats for the two little girls, to their well-remembered 
delight, since they never before had worn any thing but 
sun-bonnets or "shakers." A part of a pew was hired in 
the Unitarian church ; and all old enough (or not too old) 



66 MEMOIR OF 

went to hear the preaching of Rev. INIr. Frost, the successor 
of Dr. Riple}'. A short vacation was taken, the first for 
five 3-ears ; and luxuries even began to creep into the house. 
Thirty dollars' worth of new furniture was bought for the 
parlor; and, when it was shown to this plain-living man, he 
said, " What a pit}' it is for people to worlc so hard for a few 
stuffed wooden things to set up in a room to be looked at ! 
What does it all amount to? There is no happiness in it, 
nor no good, either." 

Concord had now become the centre of progressive thought 
in New England ; Hawthorne, the Alcotts, Ellerj^ Chnn- 
ning the poet, and husband of Margaret Fuller's sister, and 
others, having made it their abode ; and pilgrims had already 
begun to come from all parts of the country- to visit the 
homes of these writers, and see Emerson, the wise master 
and teacher. Hawthorne had lived in the " Old Manse ; " 
but at tins time (1854) he was absent in Europe, having 
been appointed consul to Liverpool under Pres. Pierce, his 
personal friend. Extracts from a short biograph}- of Haw- 
thorne (written b}' Mr. Robinson in 1861) will give some 
account of his early Concord life : — 

"In 1842 Nathaniel Ilawtliorne and his wife came to live at 
Concord, in the Old Manse. Curiously enough, Emerson himself 
had once been an inhabitant of the Old Manse. In its rear was a 
delightful little nook of a study, in which ho wrote 'Nature;' and 
he used to watch ' the Assyrian dawn, and the Paphiaii sunset and 
moon-rising,' from the summit of the eastern hill near at hand. 
The M'indows of the study peeped between willow-branches down 
into the orchard, revealing glimpses of the River Assabet shining 
through the trees. From one of the windows, facing northward, a 
broader view of the river was gained, and at a spot where its hith- 
erto obscure waters gleam forth into the light of history. It was at 
this window that the clergyman who then dwelt in the manse stood, 
watching the outbreak of a long and deadly struggle between two 
nations. He saw the irregular array of his parisliioners on the far- 
ther side of the river, and the glittering line of the British on the 
hither bank ; and he waited in an agony of suspense the rattle of the 
musketry. It came; and there needed but a gentle wind to sweep 
the battle-smoke around this quiet liorae. Under the stone wall 
which separates the battle-ground from the precincts of the par- 



''WARRINGTON." 67 

sonage is still to be seen the grave of two British soldiers slain in 
the skirmish, who have since slept peacefully there where they were 
laid. 

"While Hawthorne lived at the Old Manse, lie had many visitors of 
mark ; for his name had now become known. There were Lowell the 
poet, and Emerson, and Margaret Fuller, and EUery Channing, who 
occasionally came to enjoy a day's fishing in the river. It was a kind 
of poet's life which Hawthorne led, amidst the sound of bees, the 
murmuring of streams, and the rustling of leaves. What was more, 
the Old Manse was said to be ' haunted ; ' and occacionally there 
came a rustling noise, as of a minister's silk gown, sweeping through 
the very midst of the company, so closely as almost to brush against 
the chairs ; yet there was nothing visible. Ilawthorne, in 1844, became 
surveyor of the customs in Salem; and thither he removed accord- 
ingly. He remained there three years, occasionally digging among 
the old archives of the place, amongst which he professes to liave 
discovered the record of the story which he has so skilfully woven 
together in his 'Scarlet Letter.' Hawthorne went in as surveyor 
with the Locofoco or Polk administration; and he also went out with 
them. It is one of the evils of the popular system of governing in 
America, that, at every change of power from party to party, there is 
a clean sweep made of those in office, in favor of the adherents of 
the new dynasty. As head surveyor, IIawtlioi-ne had it in his power, 
on assuming office, to turn out the former officials, and supply their 
places with those of his' own kidney in politics. But Hawthorne 
never could find it in his heart to dismiss the old veterans : so they 
vegetated on, each in his old place." 

There were frequent opportunities of seeing Henr}- Tho- 
reau, as he often came Avith his father to work on the land 
belonging to the house in wliich Mr. Robinson lived, or, as 
the children said, to "paint the handles of the trees." His 
meditative figure Avas often seen walking across the sunn}' 
meadows, with some live specimen of a " species " dangling 
from his hand, while (to use his own expression) " the sun 
on his back seemed like a gentle herdsman driviug him home 
at evening." He sometimes called on Mr. Robinson. He 
was a great talker, sitting with his head bent over, and 
carrying on the "conversation" all b^' himself. On one 
occasion we had a visitor who had written several town his- 
tories, and was learned in Indian matters. Thoreau called 
while he was there ; and, the conversation soon turning to 



68 MEMOIR OF 

Indian affairs, Thoreau talked oui* friend dumb in a very 
short time. His book (" Walden, a Life iu the Woods") 
was published in 1854:, and drew manj-^ visitors to the little 
hut by the shore of the pond where the philosopher had lived 
on three cents a day, planted his beans, and written his 
immortal pages. The fact of his living so cheapl}- was 
much discussed in Concord, more even than the qualit}- of 
his writings ; and it was suspected by his incredulous towns- 
people that the "cupboard " of this disciple of Pj'thagoras 
was often replenished from his mother's larder. Said Mr. 
Robinson in his " Warrington " Letters, — 

"It is fortunate for literature that Thoreau lived, and built his 
house on the sliores of Walden Pond, when he did. If his birth had 
been postponed twenty years, we should never have had his most 
delightful book, and one of the most delightful of all American books. 
* Walden ' is as good of its kind as any tiling in American or Eng- 
hsh literature. It is, on the wliole, the best book ever Avritten in 
Concord. He liated, or affected to hate, all crowds, and said the 
pleasantest place iu Boston was the Fitchburg llailroad Depot, because 
it was the road home. "NVliat would he say if he could see Walden 
Pond as it is now, on whose banks he built his little house, and 
lived, raising beans on his farm, and charming the fishes with liis 
flute ? or, ratlier, what would he write and print, if i)en and ink and the 
press were open to him? for I will not assume that he cannot see and 
talk as well as ever. The pond, six months ago, was more solitary 
than Sleepy-hollow Cemetery, where his body rests with Hawthorne, 
and others not so famous. Now the cemetery has the advantage of 
the pond ; for the railroad trains frequently stop at the pond, and land 
their great iiicnic-parties, who, for the time being, make it the busiest 
part of the town. Thoreau prof(!ssed to find liis most entertaining 
company in tlie morning; for then nobody ever came to see liim: 
and Mr. Emerson said of Walden Pond, that it was an excellent place 
for parties, especially parties of one." 

Mr. Robinson thought Thoreau' s poem "Sympathy'" an 
evidence of true genius. Thoreau' s mother was one of the 
most graphic talkers imaginable, and held her listeners dumb. 
In describing scenes of her early life, she once told of the 
shipwreck of a schooner upon which she was a passenger, on 
a voyage to Maine. The dark night, the sound of the waves, 



"WARRINGTON." 69 

the cries of the people, and all the tragic events, were related 
with a vividness which photographed it at once, a startling 
picture, upon the mind of tlie hearer. His father, on the 
contrary', was the most silent of men, particularly in tlie 
presence of his wife and gifted son. At the annual melon- 
party at his house, ^ to which Mr. Robinson and his wife were 
invited, Mr. Robinson was very mucli struck by this silence 
among his guests, and nearly convulsed the friends with 
whom he was talking by quoting from Emerson, sotto voce, — 

" The silent organ loudest chants 
The master's requiem." 

The mother's famil}', from whom Thoreau seems to have 
inherited his genius, were very eccentric ; and stories of their 
sayings are still current in Concord. One of these is worth 
telling. It relates to an uncle of Henry Thoreau, Charles 
Dunbar. " In 1800," says histor}', " a revolution took place 
in the administration of public affairs ; and the Republican 
party, having become the majority, succeeded in elevating 
their candidate, Tlaomas Jefferson, to the presidency, in oppo- 
sition to Mr. Adams." - People were very much excited over 
this election, and all the voting force was called out. For 
the first time, old men were carried to the polls in arm-cliairs ; 
and the children gathered round to see the curious sight. 
Unfortunately, there was a propert}^ qualification in those 
daj's ; no man being allowed to vote unless he owned a cer- 
tain amount of property-. Charles Dunbar's mother had 
married for her second husband a rich farmer named Minot, 
who was very anxious that the young man should vote for 
Jefferson ; and, in order to enable him to do so, deeded him a 
small farm in a neighboring town. He voted ; and, after elec- 
tion-da}', Mr. Minot wanted the property back ; but Dunbar, 



1 The melons were of Henry Thoreau's own raising. 

2 IJepnblieau really meant Democrat in 1801. W. S. K. says in 1875, 
" In Jefferson's day, the government really started off on the Demo- 
cratic basis." 



70 MEMOIR OF 

following the advice of Mr. 'WilUara Cogswell,* bis friend, 
refused to give it up. The case was brought before Squire: 
Ilcywood of Concord, who said, "The property belongs to 
Charles Dunbar ; for I made out the papers all right according 
to law; and, if he gives it up, it will be of his own accord 
and free will." He did not give it up, but lived on it alone 
all his life ; and it finall}' came into the Thoreau famil}-. 
Dunbar frequently' came to Concord, and, when there, always 
called at Mr. Cogswell's house. On one of these visits, put- 
ting his head abruptly into the window (as usual), he said, 
" I could not have come to see you if one of ray oxen had 
not died. I sold the hide and horns for raonc}- enough to 
come with : so ' there's no great loss without some small 
gain.' " Miss Sophia Thoreau, sister of Henry, and the last 
survivor of the familj', died in 1876 ; and the Concord Tho- 
reaus arc now extinct. Mr. Robinson had little acquaintance 
■with the other literary personages of Concord, except C. C. 
Ilazewoll, with whom he was alwa3-s on terms of friendly 
intimac}'. He was in the habit of dropping in at Mr. Haze- 
well's sanctum at all hours, sure to find him writing, with 
inky fingers, or reading, and "puffing the friendly cigar ; " 
and many a brave article has been written on both sides of 
a question, inspired by the witty encounters between them. 
Mr. Ilobinson had a great admiration for the historical 
knowledge of his friend, who, he said, talked more freel}" of 
the family atfairs of the Czar of Russia, and knew more 
about them, than he did of his nearest neighbor's. Mrs. 
Hazewell's knowledge of history was almost as accurate as 
tliat of her husband, and she sometimes was able to jog his 
memory a little. When the Czar had his silver wedding in 
18GG, there was a di^scussion between Mr. and Mrs. Hazewell 
as to the nationality of the Czarina. Mrs. Hazewell said 
that she was a Hesse-Darmstadt princess, and that Avas the 
reason for their keeping the da}' in such fashion. This Mr. 
Hazewell disputed ; but, on looking in a book of reference 
brought for that purpose, his wife was proved to be right. 

1 Brother of W. S. Ilobiuson's mother. 



"WARRINGTON." 71 

Of Concord as an autislaveiy town, Mr. Robinson wrote 
in 1874, — 

"As I said, Concord was not an antislavery place; but some events 
in antislavery history have occurred there : for example, the capture 
and rescue of Mr. Sanborn (in the John Brown case) on a warrant 
from the United-States Senate, and the rescue of Shadraeh. Old Dr. 
EJpley was as slow as any of the Unitarian clergy to accept anti- 
slavery doctrines, and his colleagues were ' conservative ' men. It 
was more difficult to get the meeting-house for George Thompson 
than for the ' Washingtonian ' Hawkins ; and there was much op- 
position to both. Mr. Emerson, who never troubles himself about 
organizations, was not, I think, an original abolitionist, any more 
than Hon. Samuel Hoar (father of E. R. and G. F. Hoar), who had 
the name of being a conservative on the subject when George Thomp- 
son came up to disturb Dr. Ripley and the Concord pews. I may 
seem to have underrated Mr. Emerson's antislavery position. His 
first demonstration that way was his address on West-India emanci- 
pation (1S43), which was pretty early; but before this, I think, his 
early essays, and his philosophy generally, were thought to tend to 
indiffei'entism on the subject." ^ 

If not an antisla^-ery town, Concord was a famous anti- 
slavery centre, and a depot of the ''underground railroad," 
wliicli carried so many colored citizens on their way to 
freedom. Shadi'ach had been consigned there after his 
escape in Boston, and was refreshed at the house of Francis 
E. Bigelow, the friendl}' blacksmith. Mrs. Bigelow's account 
of this historic affair is as follows : — 

" Shadrach was arrested by his pretended master, with carving- 
knife in hand, while acting as waiter in a hotel on Court Street, and 
hurried at once to the Court Ilovise to be tried. On the alarm being 
given, the Court House was filled with a crowd of black and white 

1 Some extracts from a letter written to Mr. Robinson (Jan. 14, 1844) 
will show tlie state of feeling at that time on this sultject: "To-night 
all our folks have gone to the Lyceum to hear Wendell Pliillips lecture 
on slavery. We expect a small row; for it is understood INIr. Keyes, 
(father of John S. Keyes, lately United-States marshal) will reply to 
him. I hope he will; but he will get the worst of it, for Phillips has too 
many guns for him. They have already had sonic fuss in the Lyceum 
about his being invited to lecture on that subject. 

" P. S. — Phillips's lecture is over, and uo reply. Mr. Keyes was there, 
but said nothiu";." — H. M. 



72 MEMOIR OF 

men, who moved forward in a body, and, surrounding Shadrach, 
carried liim out, entangled in the mass. No one except Lewis Hay- 
den knew liim from any of the other colored men. lie went out with 
the rest, and was soon lost in the crowd. He and Hayden coolly 
walked off toward East Cambridge, keeping in sight of each other ou 
opposite sides of the street. Here they stopped at the house of Rev. 
J. C. Lovejoy, and proceeded thence to Concord in a carriage drawn 
by a black horse and a white one, and driven by a Mr. Smith. They 
arrived at Concord at three o'clock Sunday morning, and drove into 
Mr. Bigelow's yard. Mr. Bigelow, hearing the carriage, opened his 
door, and let in the poor fugitive, though the penalty was a thousand 
dollars, and six months' imprisonment, for 'aiding and abetting' a 
slave to escape. The blinds of the house were at once shut, and the 
windows darkened, to evade the notice of any passers-by ; and bi-eakfast 
was prepared in the bedchamber (by Mrs. Bigelow), on an air-tight 
stove, with the bureau for a table. Mrs. Brooks, an antislavery neigh- 
bor, was sent for, and came, accompanied by her husband, lion Xathan 
Brooks. Mr. Brooks, though an abolitionist, did not go so far as his 
wife in advocating radical antislavery measures ; and he had warned 
her that he should not countenance any such ' aiding and abetting.' 
But when he saw the poor fugitive, so frightened and forlorn, his kind 
heart made him forget the majesty of the law; and he did his part 
by furnishing Shadrach with a hat of his own with which to disguise 
himself, — the hat of a law-abiding citizen! As soon as Shadrach 
was refreshed (lie was so fatigued with loss of sleep, and anxiety, that 
he could hardly keep awake while eating), Mr. Bigelow, in a wagon 
hired for the purpose, drove him to the house of Mr. Drake in 
Leominster, another station ou the * underground railroad.' From 
there he was carried to Fitcliburg, and thence by rail to Canada. 
Meanwhile Mr. Ilayden and Mr. Smith drove leisurely to Sudbury, 
stopped with friends there, went to church, and, after a good dinner, 
returned unmolested to Boston. When the trial came on for the 
rescuers of Shadrach, there was some difficulty in impanelling a jury. 
Mr. Bigelow was drawn once, and rejected ; but afterwards, by some 
quibble of law, he was again chosen, and sat in the case. The rescuers 
were all cleared by the disagreement of the jury, Mr. Bigelow being 
the one who stood out, not because, as has been said, he was biassed 
by his feelings and action in the case, but because he conscientiously 
believed that the men tried as the rescuers of Shadrach had no more 
to do wltli it than all the rest of the crowd in the Court House; and 
he thought that the witnesses in this case must have perjured them- 
selves." 1 

1 Persons indicted in 1851 as the rescuers of Sliadrach: .Tames Scott, 
Lewis Ilaydcn, Elizur Wright, John P. Cobuin, Thomas P. Smith, 
•Toseph K. Hayes. 



"WARRINGTON." 73 

A woman's antislavery society had been formed in Con- 
cord, in 1837, at the house of Mrs. Samuel Barrett.^ It had 
seventy members at first ; but -when Mr. Garrison attacked 
the Church, calling it " the bulwark of slaver}'," the society 
was divided, and a new organization was formed of radical 
abolitionists who sympathized with Mr. Garrison, and, like 
Mm, were regardless of both Church and State. ^ This soci- 
et}' was in active operation during Mr. Robinson's residence 
in Concord ; and, though its membership was small, it met 
regularly, kept busil}' at work ; and through it Concord was 
represented at the annual subscription festivals and the anti- 
slaver}' fairs. Mrs. Nathan Brooks, the president, was its 
chief organizer and inspirer ; and it was through her efforts 
that the society was so long maintained. It met at the 
houses of the members, where a plain tea was provided, to 
which the gentlemen were invited.* The members of this 
societ}' in 1857 were Mrs. Nathan Brooks, Mrs. John Tho- 
reau, Mrs. F. E. Bigelow, Mrs. John Brown, jun., Mrs. Sam- 
uel Barrett, Mrs. Timothy Prescott, Mrs. Minott Pratt, Mrs. 
R. W. Emerson, Mrs. Jerome Richardson, Mrs. E. R. 
Hoar, Mrs. Simon Brown, Mrs. Lucy Brown, Mrs. A. B. 
Alcott, ]\Irs. W^S. Robinson, Miss Mar}' Rice, Miss Harriet 
Stowe, Miss Caroline Stowe, Miss Carrie Pratt, Miss Sophia 
Thoreau, Miss Ann Whiting, Miss Jane Whiting, Miss Ellen 
Emerson, Miss Martha Bartlett, and probably others whose 
names I have been unable to obtain. 

The president, Mrs. Brooks (though a woman of prop- 
erty), desiring to earn herself the mone}' used in the sacred 
cause, made cake b}- an unfailing recipe of her own, and 
sold it to her neighbors and friends : it was named for her. 



1 Her son, lately deceased, left four hundred dollars to the woman- 
suffrage cause. 

2 The churches were very angry with IMr. Garrison; and at one time 
he ronid not lind a place in Boston to speak in, excepting a hall con- 
ti'olled by the followers of Tliomas Paine. 

8 It met at the house of W. S. Eobinson, Jan. 27, 1857, when ten 
ladies were ijresent. 



74 MEMOIR OF 

Brooks Cake. At every " tea-fight " in Concord this cake 
was prott}' sure to be found; and the gentlemen, who, in 
turn, entertained the Social Circle, were glad to avail them- 
selves of this specialty- of a member of the proscribed sex. 
This recipe played such an important part in the anlislavery 
movement (bj' the mone}' it earned) , that I cannot foibear 
giving it here. When woman's work is recognized and val- 
ued as it should be, a new and good recipe will be as im- 
portant a discovery as a '• new ligure of speech " or a new 
l^oem. 

Brooks Cake. — One pound flour, one pound sugar, half-pound 
butter, four c^^^, one cup milk, one teaspoonful soJa, half-teusijoon- 
ful cream of tartar, half-pound currants (in half of it). 

This makes two loaves ; and, if such faithful hands and 
careful eyes as hers attend to its making, it will be fit for 
the banquet of the gods. This devoted woman lived to see 
the cause for which she so earnest]}' labored as successful as 
was always her recipe for "Brooks Cake." She died in 
18G8. "Wendell Phillips paj's a fine tril)ute to her memory 
in an article in ' ' The Antislavery Standard : " — 

"When, more than thirty years ago, I joined the antislavery 
movement, one of the first places I visited was Concord. Mrs. 
Brooks welcomed me to the old town. She was one, and a chief 
one, of half a dozen royal-minded women who represented the 
antislavery movement of the place. The famous men Avho lived 
there turned then only a tolerant eye on the cause, stamling them- 
selves at a civil distance. In kindly deference to wife or friend, they 
showed their faces, now and then, at antislavery meetings. Still it 
is but justice to say that it was the 'continual coming' of those 
untiring women that 'won or wearied' the noted names of Con- 
cord into sympathy with this great uprising for justice. We call 
others self-sacrificing and devoted; but she and her associates lived 
for their reforni ideas. Faultless in domestic duties, making her 
roof so truly a home, still no work was too hard, no duty too absorb- 
ing, no gathering too distant, no cross too heavy, for her courage. 

"How far her life sent its influence! I have been stirred by elo- 
quence, and thrilled by many a brave act, behind which I saw clearly 
that half-score of earnest women, the lieart of a famous circle, whoso 



"WARRINGTON." 75 

brain has a wide realm. The debt which Stuart Mill is never weary 
of acknowledging to his noble wife is the same that the mind of 
Concord owes to Mrs. Brooks and her associates." 

Her liusbaud, Hon. Nathan Brooks, whose claims as a 
candidate for Congress Mr. Robinson had urged in his first 
editorials in " The Yeoman's Gazette," was a lawyer in 
Concord, and was verj- much beloved. He had a habit of 
carr3'ing a lighted candle to and from his office in the even- 
ing. After his death, Mr. F. B. Sanborn, in one of his 
letters to " The Springfield Republican," speaks thus elo- 
quentl}^ of his " modest but conspicuous worth : " — 

" He chose, instead of public fame, the more quiet path of civil 
and social duty within his own town and county. lie was the adju- 
dicator of disputes, the administrator of estates, the depositary of 
trusts, the guardian of ori)lians, the just man, who, as Plato says, 
is a perpetual magistrate. When he walked the brief journey from 
his house to his office. Justice and Benevolence seemed to be patrol- 
ling the village street. The taper which lighted his stejjs in the even- 
ing walk to and fro, and which even the wind respected, was as august 
as the flambeau of a consul in the Via Sacra ; for in him all the dignity 
of Law seemed embodied, with none of her austerity." 

In 1854, when Missouri attempted to monopolize Kansas, 
and force slavery into the newh'-acquired Territor}-, the anti- 
slaverj' people of New England tried to stay its inroads by 
encouraging emigration from the free States. A New- 
England Emigrant Aid Society was formed, and under its 
protection many families left their native States to find a 
new home in that far country. On the 19th of Jul}', 1854, 
a company of twenty-four persons — the advance-guard of 
freedom — started from Massachusetts, and arrived in Kan- 
sas the same month. This compan}' was followed b}' others 
the same 3-ear ; and every Tuesday-, for several weeks in the 
earl}' part of the summer of 1855, the '■ emigrnnt-train " 
passed through Concord, on the Fitchburg Railroad, filled 
with men and women inspired by as pure an incentive to 
action as were the Pilgrim Fathers when the}' set sail for 
New England. Tiiey went to plant freedom in the most 



76 MEMOIR OF 

beautiful portion of the country, doomed In- King Cotton as 
a new field in which to perpetuate the monster evil. Aban- 
doned by the government which should have protected them, 
these emigrants suffered untold hardships. Some of them 
were killed hy border-ruffians ; and others died of starva- 
tion, caused by the destruction of their crops. Of those 
who returned, numbers were invalids for years from the 
sufferings to which they had been exposed. "Bleeding 
Kansas " was a name Avell chosen at that time to describe 
this fair part of our land. Money and clothing were sent to 
them b}' towns and individuals, and ever}' effort was made 
to encourage and assist the emigrants. Concord alone sub- 
scribed more than two thousand dollars, and the ladies of 
that town met together to sew for Kansas ; for, in spite of 
difference of opinion outside the Church and within it, there 
was but one opinion with all true antislavery people as to 
the enormity of this attempt to force slaver}* upon the Kan- 
sas settlers. Among these ladies were the members of the 
old Antislavery Societ}', who continued to work for this 
and other progressive causes until the close of the war, 
when the}' re-organized ; and the long-divided elements in 
Church and State came together as the Freedman's Aid 
Society. 

Mr. Robinson's old schoolmates and friends speak of him 
during these Concord years with much tenderness. He had 
a cheerful word for everybod}' ; and his bright sayings and 
repartees are still remembered, long after the events which 
l)romf)(ed them are forgotten, lie was very fond of chil- 
dren, and of talking and joking with them. One of his 
jokes, made at the expense of a little son of Judge Hoar, is 
often repeated. He asked the little boy how old he was ; 
and, on being told that he was six and a quarter, he said, 
" You must take care, and not get crossed; for, if you do, 
3'ou will only pass for five." Tliough his personal popu- 
larity was great, Mr. Robinson's political opinions did not 
find favor with some of his townsmen ; and when a vacancy 
occurred in the Social Circle, and his name was proposed as 



"WARRINGTON." 77 

a member, he was tabooed in the dub which his grandfather 
helped to found. He cared very little about the matter, 
however, atti'ibuting the slight, not to personal ill-feeling, 
but to opposition on political grounds. He might have 
retorted, like the old philosopher, — 

"They deride thee, O Diogenes!" Diogenes made 
answer, "But I am not derided." 



78 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VI. 

"WARRINGTOK" LETTERS. 

[1856-18C2.] 

" The State is like a great ami iioblo steed, who is tardy in his motions, and re- 
quires to bo stirred into life. If I may use a ludicrous figure of sipeoeli, I am a 
sort of gadlly, given to the Stiito by Crod ; and all day long, and in all places, am 
always fa--tening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. ... If 
I had been like other men, I should not have neglected my own concerns, or pa- 
tiently seen the neglect of them, all these years, and have been doing yours, coming 
to you indiviihi.illy like a father or an elder brother. Had I been paid, there would 
Iiave been some sense in that; but not even the impudence of my accusers daies to 
say that I have ever exacted or sought pay of any one. And 1 have a witness of the 
truth of what I say: my poverty is a suflicient witness." — Plato's yiyx)/o//y o/" 
Socrates. 

The "Warrington" letters in " Tlie Springfield Repub- 
lican " began in 1856. Into them Mr. Robinson carried on 
his fight against the Knovv-Nothings, and accused that party 
of theft (as will ])e seen b}- the first letter) openly and per- 
sistentl}', — an accusation which was never succcssfull}' de- 
nied. The first of these letters are little more than legislative 
reports ; but the writer soon acquired the habit of scourging 
corrupt members, and laughing at dull ones ; taking refuge, 
perhaps, behind his own theorj', — that " dull men, and even 
women, ma}' be attacked with impunity, but none other." 
In these letters he found full and free expression for his 
knowledge of politics and literature, and gave unrestrained 
utterance to his thouglits .concerning politicians, reformers, 
mankind in general, and public questions. Bishop Haven 
says (in 187G) of tliem, — 

"They were strong iu thought, curt in satire, and, though defi- 
cient in the aroma that classic scholarship sends forth, were not 



"WARRINGTON." 79 

without liigli claims as literary efforts. They were full of personali- 
ties. Men were not hidden behind the arras of compliment or gen- 
eral remark. Many of his personalities provoked bad blood ; or would 
have done so, but for the seeming lack of all personality in the writer. 
He sat a,s judge, and weighed these men in his golden balances as 
iinperturbably as Rhadamanthus decided the fates of those who 
appeared before his seat of judgment. Some of the victims impaled 
on his pencil spear writhed fearfully. Many were of such littleness, 
that such impaling alone has given them immortality, even as 
Pope's ' Dunciad ' has kept many a dunce from oblivion. He struclv 
the members of the very House he served,^ if, in his judgment, they 
merited that fate. How timidly must they have opened ' The Repub- 
lican ' to see in what guise the ' Warrington ' who sat before them, 
so seemingly cold and indifferent, had set them forth ! Nor could 
one smile over his fallen neighbor; for he knew not the day nor the 
hour when he might not himself be slain. Said Mr. Sumner, ' He has 
the best French gift of " touch and go," of which About is the mas- 
ter.' He went out into all realms, — literary, political, reformatory, 
theological. He was as equally self-assured in reviewing theology as 
politics, literature as reform. He Avas, therefore, an unsafe, but never 
an uninteresting, critic. That he was faithful in much-needed plain- 
ness of speech is true. He irradiated the perishable columns of a 
daily journal with the ceaseless flashes of liis poignant wit. He shot 
through them the piercing shafts of many a lofty principle. He was 
true to himself, and, as ' Warrington,' reproduced with startling ex- 
actness the very perfection of that character of Thackeray's imagina- 
tion whom Thackeray would have rejoiced to have seen thus animated 
in flesh and blood, and doing his part in the columns of a Yankee 
journal." 

Thackeray "was one of Mr. Robinson's favorite authors. 
He thought him as great as Scott or Dickens, and believed 
that his works would be read more and more ever}' 3'ear, and 
be standards long after more popular authors were forgotten. 
When a name was talked of as a signature to " The Spring- 
field Republican" letters he was fresh from the reading of 
" Pendcnnis," and had enjoj-ed immensel}' the character of 
Warrington, that mental tj-pe of all jovial, sharp newspaper 
critics : the name was therefore selected at once as the ideal 
nom de plume of a newspaper correspondent. Perhaps the 
"stunning" qualities of Thackeray's Warrington (in which 

1 While clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. 



80 MEMOIR OF 

he was the exact opposite) altracted Mr. Robinson towards 
this character as much as '-the strong thoughts, the curt 
periods, the sense, the satire, and the scholarship;" and 
then, too, George Warrington "wrote for his bread." The 
letters soon became widely read and quoted, and " AVarring- 
ton's " opinion was cited on all the questions of the day. 
Many Massachusetts people, particularly in the western coun- 
ties, were in almost Cimmerian darkness on the question of 
slavery ; and these letters, during the first years of their 
publication, were said to have brought almost the only ray 
of light on that subject into the Connecticut Vallc}'. 

"The Springfield Republican " did not always agree with 
its "own" correspondent; and not" infrequenth' a column 
would be seen by the side of the " AVarrington" letter, ex- 
plaining the divergences of opinion. This divergence was 
alwa3-s frank and open, and conducted creditably to both 
sides. If the readers of "The Republican" did not agree 
with his views, the}' still read the letters, because the}' could 
not help reading what " Warrington " had to sa}'. A story 
told me by a friend who returned from Kansas in 1858 will 
illustrate this. This gentleman had stopped at a little inn 
in Lawrence, and found a fellow-traveller sitting in the bar- 
room, reading " The Republican." He exclaimed, " Win', 
do 3'ou take that paper?" — "Yes," replied the traveller. 
" Confound him! I take the paper so as to know what that 
fellow ' Warrington ' has to say. I don't believe what he 
writes half the time ; but I can't get along without reading 
it ; " and he showed m}' friend something which had specially 
pleased him. The question had been once asked " Warring- 
ton," "Would you interfere with slavery where it is?" — 
"Why," said he, " j'ou would not interfere with slavery 
where it is not^ would you?" His habit of writing was 
most simple. He never shut himself apart to wait for 
inspiration or the divine afflatus^ but laughed at all such 
" nonsense." He almost always wrote his letters during 
the evening, in the common sitting-room, in the presence of 
his family, with the children playing about, or getting their 



''WARRINGTON." 81 

lessons for the morrow. The letter, when done, was read 
aloud, commented upon, and criticised. When a particu- 
larl}' good thing was written, it was read at once, and the 
humorous and satirical parts laughed over before the letter 
was fmislicd. I have seen him Avriting as fast as possible, 
shaking with laughter at the same time. He seldom erased 
a line, or a word : for he had the power to assimilate, 
and keep packed in regular order, all the material he re- 
quired ; and, when he wanted it for use, he had only to 
" draw the cork," as he expressed it. Plis theory of writ- 
ing was, that an}- person who can think clearl}' can write or 
speak without difficult}-, and that practice makes the writer. 
He disclaimed the idea that an}- one needed an especial genius 
for writing, and said, " What right have we to demand that 
every man who writes a book shall be a man of genius? 
Geniuses are scarce : though Emerson's definition of a poet 
— ' a man without impediment ' — seems to imply that all 
men except stutterers are poets; which I don't see." In 
letters of advice to a young newspaper-writer (in 1873) he 
says, — 

" Write as you think. Begin at once on your subject, pack your 
head well with reading and thoughts, and then writing will be easy 
enough. No one can write well who is not a wide reader. Could you 
have written those charming letters to me if you had not been famil- 
iar with Carlyle, De Quincey, and Charles Lamb ? Blessed be good 
books! They gradually and imperceptibly inform the taste. Reviews 
and editorials, like conversation and newspapers, keep the world 
moving, and so are of more practical use than books ; but they are not 
books, and there's an end of it. Do you suppose you could write 
such spleudid letters tq your correspondents if you had only read 
cheap novels? Not a bit of it. By and by, after you are done 
drudging at newspaper-work, you shall be an author. You have 
escaped immortality, being switched off the celestial railroad on to a 
side-track leading to an old coal-yard. You shall be paid for it some 
day ; if not here, then hereafter. Luther jiromised his dog, that, in 
the resurrection, he should have a golden tail. .You shall have a harp 
for music, or a pencil for painting, or a chisel for sculpture ; and I will 
be your delighted proof-reader and critic, and take the money for 
your golden books. Seriously, writing, to bright people, is a mere 
trick of the pen, and a knack which you will fall into. On all topics 



82 MEMOIR OF 

you had better reflect pretty well. It is not always enough to discover 
fallacies on the other side: one must be careful to avoid them on his 
own, or, if he does not wholly avoid them, to speak with caution'. 
The speaker who uses language for effect on the people before him, 
may with safety, and even with credit, be fallacious where the writer 
cannot. The newspaper quietly and surely indoctrinates the people; 
and in a large daily nothing comes amiss. But, on the other hand, 
nothing takes the place of tact, and capacity of imparting. Contro- 
versial talent is useful, especially in politics; but it ought to be joined 
with caution, and a knowledge of what can be said, and will be said, 
in reply. I do not (for one) believe in the notion, that it is the sole 
purpose of an editor, or writer for the press, to give the news of the 
day, and nothing else, and to squib any thing and every thing. It 
begets a habit of trifling and persiflage. It is sometimes hard to 
know what the truth is; but there is generally a right and a wrong 
side, and to write merely 'to fill up the time ' is as bad as 'praying 
to fill up the time.' Doubtless you may feel called upon, or even 
obliged, to stray somewhat from the ideal; but that you will ever write 
what you don't believe I cannot suppose. I never do it; though I 
frequently have occasion to change my mind, and see, in looking 
backward, my mistakes, mostly as to estimates of character. He who 
has a reform on his hands must not shrink from personalities." 

In 18o7 Mr. Robinson commenced as correspondent of 
" The Xew-York Tribune ; " and he wrote weelcl3- letters and 
articles for that paper during that and tlie following years 
until 18G1, and at intervals thereafter until 1SG9. There 
are about two hundred and lift}' of these letters and articles, 
containing a complete political history' of Massachusetts, 
from which selections might be made that would be invalua- 
ble for political reference. In them the prominent political 
events of those years are recorded, and the name of no man 
who took an important part is omitted. Thej' are full of 
brief biographies of the men of the time, and contain some 
of the best of "Warrington's" writings. Selections from 
them will be found among the " Warrington " letters. 
These "Tribune" letters were signed "Gilbert." The 
editorials had no signature, and no doubt were thought to be 
Mr. Greeley's ; for it used to be said that the subscribers 
of that paper thought Mr. Greeley wrote every thing in it. 
In 1857 Mr. Bowles of "The Springfield Republican" 



''WARRINGTON." 83 

attempted what was called "The Traveller Consolidation" 
by a union of the Boston "Traveller," "Telegraph," and 
"Atlas" newspapers. "Warrington" was engaged as a 
writer for "The Traveller" diu-ing the few weeks of its 
marriage, and he celebrated its divorce in a letter to " The 
Republican" of Sept. 9 : — 

" 'I saw three clouds at morning 
Tinged with the rising sun ; 
And in the dawn they floated on, 
And mingled into one.' 

" I am sorry to say that the marriage has not been a happy one, 
and that a divorce has got to ensue. The causes, which are luimer- 
ous, will not all probably be made public; but they may be siunmed 
up in one word, 'incompatibility.' I believe the verdict will be the 
usual one in cases of railroad disasters; viz., 'Nobody to blame.' As 
a newspaper, ' The Traveller ' has been good ; equal, at least, to the 
most enterprising of its competitoi'S, ' The Journal.' Its editorial 
articles have been numerous, generally well written and readable, :md 
on subjects of popular interest; and its politics have been of the 
average Massachusetts llepublican kind. Politically, however, it had 
a hard public to satisfy. There were, first, the old readers of 'The 
Traveller,' who were never schooled in antislavery politics or morals; 
second, the subscribers of ' The Atlas,' who were mostly old Wbigs, 
some of them glad to get into the Republican party, and others 
driven in by stress of politics; third, the 'Telegraph' and ' Common- 
wealth' men, who for half a score of years had been impressed by 
such men as Wright, Carter, Bird, (what a conjunction of names!) 
Baldwin, Hazcwell, Robinson, et id genus omne, with a righteous 
horror of hunkerism, especially Democratic hunkerism, particularly 
Whig hiinkerism, and most particularly and especially Know-Mothing 
hunkerism, or Gardnerism; and. fourth, the new readers, the people 
at large, who might be attracted by the freshness of news, and inde- 
pendence of discussion, which the paper might furnisli. Such a public 
who could satisfy? Mr. Bowles brought to his task great cxiicrience, 
admirable editorial tact, good manners, and good judgment. But, on 
the one hand, he hated the hunkers, and was suspected of having no 
partiality for the great idol of hunkerism. Gov. Gardner: on the 
other hand, he had too little faitlain the political ideas and machinery 
of the radical Republicans to suit them. However free and easy 
these men may be in their politics and ethics, they are most intoler- 
ant partisans, and impatient of any thing that looks like leaping over 
the bounds they have set up. The opposition of 'The Traveller' to 



84 MEMOIR OF 

the Kansas appropriation was the first and early offence given to these 
men. Old stagers in antislavery lot 'The Telegrapli ' die because it 
was not so good a newspaper as ' Tlie Journal,' which last year they 
were subscribing to very actively for the purpose of encourajinj it in 
the antislavery course it seemed to be entering upon. Well, these 
men were mad at 'The Traveller' because it opposed the Kansas 
resolves, and impatient because it was not so strongly antislavery as 
' The Bee:' so they turned the cold shoulder; and, when money was 
wanted to keep 'The Bee' from going headlong into the support of 
Gardnerism, it was raised by two or three old Free-Soilers, who 
thought, probably, they were doing a great thing for 'the cause.' ^ 
The whole story is summed up in the assertion, which is capable of 
proof, that an antislavery and independent daily newspajjer of a high 
standard cannot be made to support itself in Boston. 

'"The Traveller' experiment is still a subject of common talk 
among politicians and newspaper-men. Some hard feeling exists 
against Mr. Bowles, caused by his coming down from Springfield 
' like the wolf on the fold ' and destroying two daily newspapers, with 
all the opportiuiitics which they afforded for employment. If a lively, 
enterprising, and New-Yorkish newspaper had been the permanent 
result, all would have been well enough ; but to have ' The Telegraph ' 
and ' Atlas ' extinguished, and nothing but ' The Traveller' left, — 
this is rather too bad, I confess. But I am not disposed to grunilile. 
The whole affair, in all its aspects, is rather laughable. The rape of 
the newspapers will go into history like 'The IJape of the Sal)ine 
Women,' or of the ' Lock,' or that classical elopement sung by Mis- 
tress Goose, when 

" Tlie cat ran away with tho pudding-bag string." 

Immediately after " The Traveller " returned to itself ("as 
though a rose should shut, and be a bud again "), " Warring- 
ton " was informed by -the proper authorities of that paper 
that they had more writers than room ; " and we umst there- 
fore ask 3'ou to close jour term of service with us from 
to-da}"." There was now no consistent antislavery news- 
paper in Boston, and, eonsequentl}', no place for his pen. 
The politics of the State were not his politics ; and its lead- 
ers, with the exception of Charles Sumner and a few others, 
were ruled bj'the Know-Nothing (or American) part}-. His 

^ Credulous antislavery people thought the Bee was tho true 
antislavery organ, though iliey could not depend upon it from one hour 
to the next. — W. S. R. in 1S57. 



''WARRINGTON." 85 

articles, he was told, would have killed aii}^ dail}' in Boston. 
"Out of work" is a sad thing for the bread-winner to say 
to his famil}' when he comes home at night ; and the carpenter 
and the mason are not the onl}' useful people, who, when out 
of work, must be continuall}' looking for jobs. Said Haw- 
thorne, "In this dismal chamber fame was won;" and 
in like manner can the biographer of "Warrington" show 
out of what gloom}' surroundings his life-work and fame 
were wrought. The domestic stages might be thus de- 
scribed : "While in this place, we starved ; here we paid our 
debts ; there we were comfortable," &c. It seems like repe- 
tition to write of all these trials and privations, now that the 
end is gained, and his work done, and so well done. But 
I tell them to illustrate the character of the man, and to 
show, if necessar}-, that self-interest and worldliness were 
never in his mind, when the good of others, and "other- 
worldliness,"were to be considered. His regret at being out 
of work was less for the money he might earn, and the com- 
forts it would bring to his famil}', than that he was obliged 
to be silent when he felt that he ought to be writing. " The 
public need it," he said: " they cannot afford that I should 
be silent." The late William S. Tha^-er, then of "The 
Tribune, "writing to Mr. Robinson in 1857, saj's, "We 
should be glad to have you continue 3-our letters. I think it 
not impossible something in the editorial line may turn up 
for 3-our benefit in this vicinit}*, though I know of nothing at 
present. It is a shame to Massachusetts people that the}' 
do not do more to support the best editor they have." 
During these years (1857-59), when no newspaper-office was 
open to "Warrington," Mr. II. L. Pierce offered him a seat 
at a desk in his office, where he could sit when not " look- 
ing for jobs," read his papers, and do his writing. Both 
he and Mr. Pierce enjoyed this freedom of intercourse thus 
established. They were then and ever after fast and warm 
friends, and were associated together in many a good politi- 
cal work. Mr. Robinson often expressed his gratitude for 
the kindness of Mr. Pierce, w-lio thought the favor all on 



86 MEMOIR OF 

bis side in the satisfaction at the opportir.iit^- thus given 
him for cullivtiting ''Warrington's" acquaintance; saying 
that he was "more than repaid for any favor he might 
have conferred, by the juice he expressed out of ' "Warring- 
ton.' " 

Not being able to use his pen in Boston so much as he 
desired, Mr. Robinson tried other places. In answer to a 
letter to a New-York paper, asking for work, he received this 
reply from John Russell Young: "I don't think you can 
write any thing that we will want to print." He, however, 
got a chance to write for a California paper (for which 
he did not receive his pay), and also (in 1S57) letters to 
" The Worcester Transcript," signed "Boythorn;" and, in 
the same and later years, he wrote short political articles for 
" The Congregationalist " and '* Zion's Herald," which were 
extensivelj' copied into other newspapers as "Opinions of 
the Religious Press." He furnished articles for "Apple- 
ton's Cyclopaedia" (then being published), and revised the 
writings (usuall}' a labor of love) of book-makers whose 
early education had not been acquired in the Concord school- 
house. He selected the reading-matter for an almanac pub- 
lished b}" one Ayer, who demurred at the price asked for the 
work, and refused to pa}' it.' He also reported legislative 
proceedings for " The Advertiser " in 1858 and 18 JD. For 
all this writing the paj' was extremely small, as it was, 
also, for the "Warrington" and "Tribune" letters, as I 
shall explain in future pages. 

"The Straight Republican," a campaign paper, was pub- 
lished during the campaign of 1857 by Henry L. Pierce, 
Estes Howe, F. W. Bird, and others. Sa3-s " Warrington," 
"The Republicans who oppose Mr. Banks have issued a 
small sheet called ' The Straight Repul)licau ; ' and they 
will soon be able to ascertain — what I believe the}' do 

1 He afterwards ran for Congress, and ""Warrinpfon" wrote a sketch 
of him. This was one of the things he shook witli hvngliter over while 
writing. "Wlien done, aiul ho had read it aloud, he said, "At lout I liave 
got my pay of Jim Ayer." 



"WARRINGTON." 87 

not yet pi'etend to know — the actual strength of their 
movement. They profess merelj' to desu'e to make a pro- 
test against the tendenc}' of Ilepnblicanism towards Know- 
Nothingism." " The Straight Republican" was edited b}^ 
"Warrington," and sent "free gratis for nothing" all over 
the State. One Republican to whom the paper was sent 

returned it, yellow wrapper and all, Avith "Too d d 

straight" written upon it in bold letters. "The Fate of 
the Straight Republican Part}'" will be found among the 
selections. 

Mr. Robinson had moved from Concord to Maiden in the 
fall of 1857 ; and in 18o9 his fourth and last child was born, 
— his namesake, Warrington. His first boy, named William, 
also for his father, died this J'car, at the age of five ^-ears. 
Mr. Robinson was very fond of his children, and ver}' indul- 
gent to them ; and the loss of this child was keenly felt. He 
had alwaj's joined in their games and plaA's, and been a 
child with them ; but this loss made a great change in him, 
for then he first knew grief, and felt its heaviness upon him. 
He had not then come to believe in the immortality- of the 
soul, but thought, as Emerson expressed it a few A'ears later, 
that " the best proof of our immortality is the desire for it." 
A better proof came to the bereaved father later in life, when 
an inner growth revealed to him — what dogmas and creeds 
had failed to do — the certainty of another chance, a better 
life. But at this time the dead wall of uncertainty rose 
blank before him, and there was no way out. "Where is 
he? " he asked : " what has become of him ? " 

" My truant wise and sweet, 
Oh ! whither tend thy feet? " 

Da3's were spent in vain speculation and questionings. 
Friends came and went, and left their shreds of belief. Said 
Catholic Annie, "He is safe: children do not sin till after 
the}' are seven years old." "Just read}' for the kingdom," 
said one. And the minister read, " I shall go to him ; but he 
shall not return to me : ' ' but there was no comfort in it. 



88 MEMOIR OF 

" '\\niore is the creed," said he, " that can assure mc where 
the boy is that but j'csterday was here, and ours? In another 
world ? What is that other world ? It seems to me as if I 
had lived once before ; and I hope I shall again. Perhaps 
people live on and on, in different shapes, in different ages. 
I may ^^et be a prince, or a i)hilosophcr, or a starving Irish- 
man. I have a firmer faith that I have lived than that I 
shall live again ; but I do not know why not the latter. 
Wordsworth expresses well the feeling of a previous life : 
'Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.' " And at 
another time he said, " What right have we to complain that 
we cannot keep the child to be ours, to be proud of, as other 
parents are, and to grow up to do us honor? It would be 
pure selfishness to wish it. Nothing can harm him : and 
God, who brought him helpless into this world of sin and 
strife, Avill surel}' take good care of such little innocent souls 
when they leave it ; and we can trust him in God's hands. 
For him there will be no disappointments nor sufferings as 
we suffer now. Let the other children do as they mav, this 
one will alwaj-s do well. We shall alwaj's have a good and 
perfect child. He is the successful child. Happy little bo}' ! 
— lost, 3'et saved." Mr. Robinson's philosoph}' and pa- 
tience under this severe sorrow illustrated his own thought 
expressed later in one of his writings : " What is called the 
consolation of religion in time of sorrow is but another name 
for insensibility. Infidels and philosophers put religionists 
to shame at such times." 

In April, 1859, " Warrington" was candidate for clerk of 
the Commission on the Revision of the Statutes, and received 
ever}' vote. A contemporar}' says, "The unanimous vote 
for Mr. Robinson is both surprising and gratifying. His 
uncompromising antislavery principles, making him the bit- 
ter enemy of all shades of Know-Nothingism, and the inde- 
pendent freedom with which, as a journalist, he has for manj' 
years discussed and denounced most of the politicians and 
political parties of the States, prove that the office and the 
vote are not the thrift which follows fawning, but the tribute 



"WARRINGTON." 89 

to capacity and llonest3^" In August, 1859, a situation 
was ofFei-ed " Warrington " on the staff of " The New-York 
Tribune," at twenty-five dollars a week. Mr. C. A. Dana 
and Mr. Robert Carter (of "The Tribune") urged him to 
accept this offer. The latter wrote, "The great merit of 
' The Tribune,' so far as connection with it is concerned, is 
its permanence. It has not the Boston habit of bursting 
up every six months." C. C. Hazewell and other Massa- 
chusetts friends thought it was a great chance for him, and 
urged him so persistently to accept it, that he accused them 
of wanting to get rid of them. To his wife, who thought 
she saw at last an opportunity for him to live at ease, and 
follow his favorite vocation, he said, " Don't hanker after 
the loaves and fishes." When it was urged that the name 
of being connected with ' ' The New- York Tribune ' ' would 
be of great service to him, he dissented, saj-ing that Massa- 
chusetts was good enough for him. To Mr. Carter he wrote 
(Aug. 5, 1850),— 

"I fear that the expense of removal, and of living in New York, 
tumult, breakage of connection, general change of condition, uncer- 
tainty, moi-e or less, of suiting you and being suited, are such that I 
should not find any advantage in moving. This year has been a very 
good one for me, my employment by the legislative committee paying 
very well. But this will soon be over ; and, in the uncertainty whether 
any more good jobs will present themselves, I am not disposed sum- 
marily to dismiss your kind and complimentary suggestion. If I 
could have a few days for inquiry as to cost of living, &c., and for 
some consultation with my wife and my friends, I should like it. It 
is fair to say, however, that the probabilities are that I should decline 
your proposal, though I acknowledge it to be liberal ; and I thank you 
for it, not only because it has given me a lookout for work, but be- 
cause it has flattered the self-conceit of one who supposes himself 
equal at least to the common run of Boston newspaper-men, but is 
kept out of his employment here, in his favorite vocation, because 
he holds opinions somewhat fixed." 

Thinking it best not to dismiss such an offer without due 
consideration, Mr. Robinson went to New York to look 
about and see how a poor man could live there. While 
there, he went into one of those large brick institutions 



90 MEMOIR OF 

(that have now become so common in Massachusetts) where 
his children would be obliged to go to school, if he lived in 
or near New York ; and he did not like the looks of it, nor 
the idea of children being all herded together in such a 
manner. "Not at all like the Concord sehoolhouse," said 
he. He thought there could be no individuality among 
such children, but that the}' would all be turned out after 
one pattern ; and he much preferred a country schoolhouse. 
Mr. Bowles of " The Republican " had written to him, urging 
him to sta^' in Boston, as he would much rather have his 
letters written from that city than from New York. Mr. 
Robinson did not like to give up sa}ing his say in his 
week]}' "Warrington" letters; and this, with the expressed 
belief that Massachusetts was the best State in which to bring 
up children, decided him to let well enough alone, and stay 
in his native State. 

The close of the year 1859 was a gloomy time for anti- 
slaver}' people ; for John Brown had fought his battle at Har- 
per's Ferry, with only God on his side, and lay condeunied to 
death in a Southern prison. Thoreau said of him, '• lie was 
not learned in grammar, but in the humanities. lie Avould 
have left a Greek accent slanting the wrong way, and righted 
up a falling man." Now that history has given the verdict 
in this case, there can be no doubt that John Brown's was 
the first gun fired to right a falling people, and that it drew 
the fire of the sla\eholders in advance of the great battle of 
18G0. Emancipation seemed farther off than ever to the im- 
patient ones, and many grew disheartened. One friend said 
to "Warrington," " What is the use for you to stand, with 
a few others, so opposed to all the ruling powers, sacrificing 
your worldly advancement, and ^'our chance for usefulness as 
a writer? You are no surer of your cause than you were two 
years ago." To which he roi)lied with his favorite expres- 
sionj " The people are to be trusted. There is anotiicr da}' 
after to-day. Have faitli, have faith!" In a letter to his 
favorite nephew. Mr. Robinson gives some political advice, 
and his first opinion of Mr. Lincoln : — 



"WARRINGTON." 91 

" The truth is, I have so many letters to write for pelf, filthy lucre, 
to ' The Tribune ' and ' Si)ringfiel(l Kepublican,' that I am j-ather in- 
disposed towards correspondence in general. But I have a sort of 
feeling that to you, as the son of the brother I loved so well, a little 
more courtesy is due than to many others. I see you take some 
interest in politics. I am glad of this ; for it is an intellectual pur- 
suit (or may be made so), and everybody ought to take enough 
interest in it to know liow to vote intelligently. Then there is a good 
deal of fun and recreation in it, whicli we need. But, if I were in. 
your place, I would try to read the newspapers -and speeches on all 
sides, for the purjiose of enabling myself to form my own opinions, 
rather than read them for the sake of taking their opinions at any 
rate. Partisanship is a good thing, and necessary ; but let it be an 
intelligent partisanship, and not a stupid and blind one. This is my 
sermon. Now as to ' old Abe.' From what I know of him, I think 
well of him. He is more of a man than he has the credit of being, i 
and I think he is as honest as the average of men. Honesty is not so I 
scarce as intelligence. I think he has enough of both to carry on the I 
government well. I was very much grieved over the failure to nomi- 
nate Mr. Seward, and lip.ve no doubt it was a political blunder, as well 
as a grievous wrong to the mass of the party. But I was not much 
disappointed in the result. The convention did the next best thing." 

June 10, 1860, Mr. Sumner made liis great speech on the 
Barbarism of Slaver3\ He was four hours in delivering 
this speech ; and it was said of it, that it posted the books on 
the slavery question up to this time. The whole South was 
inflamed by it, and Mr. Sumner was threatened with violence. 
"Warrington" wrote articles on the subject in "The Atlas 
and Bee " (Boston), for which Mr. Sumner wrote his thanks 
in the following letter : — 

Sexate Chamber, June 10, 1S60. 

Dear Mk. Bobinsox, — I was full of gratitude to "The Atlas," 
and wondering to whose pen I was so much indebted, when I received 
your letter. Thanks. 

The cold-nJiOiilderlsm of the Reijublican pi'css shows how little heart 
it has for one, who, after much suffering, was vindicating freedoiu of 
debate struck down in his person, and also how little of true instinct 
it has for the requirements of the time. Had I spoken tamely, I 
should have spoken unworthily; nor should I have done justice to 
the occasion, to the subject, or to myself. 

A slave-master shows himself in Faneuil Hall, and, true to the 



92 MEMOIR OF 

instincts of his class, falls into Billingsgate; and this is repeated by 
hunkers. But Republicans, so called, are not much better. 

Ever sincerely yours, 

Charles Scmneu. 

In 18G0 " The Boston Daily Bee " was supported by 
radical Republicans as an antislaver\' newspaper. "The 
Bee" was an old established newspaper, having been started 
in 1842 b}' a company of joiuncyraon printers. It did not 
meddle nr.icli witli politics until 1849, when it supported tlie 
Whig nomination for mayor, John P. Bigelow ; and it became 
a pretty steady Whig paper from that time. When Know- 
Nothingism came about, it rung the changes on the Pope, 
that Pagan full of pride, and the scarlet woman of Babylon, 
the great red dragon, and so on; most ellcctively mingling 
with its antislaver}' war-cries loud objurgations against old 
fogyism and the re[)eal of the Missouri Compromise. After 
the union was dissolved between " The Traveller," "Atlas," 
and " Telegraph," the latter paper, like nian\' divorced 
parties, went into nothingness; but ''The Atlas" formed a 
sort of left-handed connection with " The Bee." This con- 
tinued till the fall of 18G0, when some radical Repul)licans 
took it, and the name of " Atlas ^' was abandoned, and that 
of " Bee " only retained. 

It was short-lived under its new name ; but, during that 
time, "Warrington" wrote for it, and crowded all the anti- 
slavery articles he could into its columns. Letters to Eli 
Thayer on "Squatter Sovereignty," written by "Warring- 
ton," appeared in the Maiden local paper. Mr. Thayer 
was a candidate for Congress in the Worcester District 
during the campaign of 18G0 ; and these letters, it was said, 
defeated him and his theory of settling the Kansas question 
b3' squatter sovereignty. 

In August, 18G0, John A. Andrew was nominated; and 
Mr. Robinson wrote of this event, "The 'Straights' had 
it all their own wa}- ; not 'too damned straight' this time, 
but a complete and glorious victor}' over Banks and the 
Know-Nothings, old Boston conservatism, and every thing 



"WARRINGTON." 93 

bad. I ahvaj-s had faith that we should come uppermost 
finall}'." In November, Pres. Lincoln was elected, and 
also John A. Andrew, our "war Governor." In December, 
South Carolina voted to secede from the Union ; and very 
soon other States followed her example. At this time, Henry 
Wilson wrote as follows : — 

Dec. IC, ISGO. 

Deab Eobinson, — Some of our friends here are weak ; most of 
tliem are firm. Lincoln's firmnes§ liel^^s our weak ones; but we have 
signs of weakness here and at home. Out on all cowards ! We are 
to have disunion : so all think here. The Northern doughfaces are 
trying to so manage the matter as to jDUt down the Republicans by 
making the issue of letting the traitors come back by concessions. 
Our friends have a terrific contest before them. We need all the aid 
that fidelity to principle, firmness, and good sense, can give us. I hope 
more from the folly and rashness of the secessionists than I do from 
the wisdom and courage of our friends. It may come in a few weeks 
to blood. If so, let it come, be the consequences what they may. 
Armed traitors are around and about us ; but I hope we shall do our 
duty. 

Let me hear often from you about matters at home. 

Yours truly, 

II. Wilson. 

In January, 1861, the Personal-liberty Act came before 
a committee of the Massachusetts legislature. This com- 
mittee met in a small room in the State House to discuss the 
bill ; and an attempt was made to report against it, for it 
had been the policy of some of the frightened "Union- 
savers" in other States to repeal this bill. Mr. Robinson, 
Wendell Phillips, and other antislaver}- people, on being 
informed of this intention on the part of tlie committee, 
crowded into the committee-room, and nearl}' filled it. Mr. 
Phillips and others made speeches, and demanded a public 
hearing, which was granted. "Warrington" wrote the 
memorial to the legislature on this bill, and also the report 
of the chairman of the committee. Feb. 1, 1861, the first 
number of " The Tocsin," a campaign newspaper, appeared. 
Elizur AVright, F. W. Bird, F. B. Sanborn, and JMr. Robin- 
son, furnished articles for it. Its prospectus declared it to 



94 MEMOIR OF 

be " published b^' an association of Republicans who are 
in earnest, and who will be heard;" and its motto was, 
"No more compromise with slavery." The six numbers 
that were published contained articles against the repeal of 
the Personal-liberty Bill, in favor of radical antislaver}' 
measures, and denouncing the Virginia Peace Commission. 
Virginia had called upon all States who wanted to adjust the 
slavery question to send four commissioners to that State to 
confer on the subject ; "■ which means," said " Warrington," 
"to make slavery perpetual, and see what new degradation 
can be devised for the North to swallow." There was a 
meeting of merchants and brokers on State Street in Febru- 
ar}' to choose a committee of four to instruct the legislature 
to respond to this call. The legislature very properl}' took 
no notice of this interference ; but finall}' an order passed 
its branches, and seven commissioners were appointed, 
Man}' of the leading Republicans were opposed to this com- 
mission, among them F. AV. Bird, G. L. Stearns, and Mr. 
Robinson, who said, "It is the dut}' of Massachusetts to 
stand firm, and shake hands politically with no slave- 
holders; " and they went to the State House, and tried to 
talk a contrary spirit into the legislature. Gov. Andrew 
was not in favor of the commission ; but (says Mr. -Robinson 
in his diary) " he afterwards caved in, as he did on the 
Personal - liberty Bill." Such campaign papers as "The 
Straight Republican," "The Tocsin," and afterwards "The 
Reveille." and other campaign documents, did a good work 
in their time. They were printed, and sown broadcast among 
the people, by a set of men who thought it important that 
the sentiments the}- advocated should be read. There was 
no political antislaver^- newspaper in Boston except " The 
Bee;" and the administration of the new abolition Presi- 
dent and Governor was not heartd}- supjiorted by the leading 
editors, who almost universally advocated a timid policy. 
The hunker and doughface clement was in the ascendant. 
There was no pecuniary profit to an}' one in these i)ublica- 
tions ; certainly not to the writers. The capital "Warring- 



"WAEIilNGTON." 95 

ton" made out of the larger part of his political writing of 
this kind was the same that he had made iu "The Lowell 
American," — a name. Mr. Robinson wrote several pam- 
phlets in 1861-62. The one best known and remembered, 
perhaps, is, "A Conspiracy' to defame John A. Andrew," 
of which the writer said (in 1875), — 

''This pamphlet was a savage attack on Mr. Saltonstall, in defence 
of Gov. Andrew. Doubtless Mr. Saltonstall has forgotten it. He 
has never thanked me for it ; nor did Andrew, for that matter. It was 
one of my gratuitous works, though I believe the expense of printing 
was borne by others." 

Everybody' will remember how events crowded npon each 
other in 1861. Mr. Lincoln had been obliged to go secretly 
to Washington in February ; five States had seceded ; and 
the Southern Confederacy had chosen Jefferson Davis for its 
President. On the loth of April, Fort Sumter surrendered ; 
and the countr}- was filled with excitement and consterna- 
tion. Men enlisted at the call of the government, and 
companies of soldiers began to be formed. Political differ- 
ences were forgotten, and anti- and pro- slaverj^ volunteers 
paraded the streets side b}- side to the tune of 

" John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave: 
His soul is marching on." ^ 

Gov. Andrew sent to P^ngland for a thousand Enfield rifles, 
and the soldiers soon went into camp. The Parrott gun 
appeared, and people flocked to see this new engine of 
destruction. One old man, on seeing it, remarked, " Them 
missionaries have converted a heap of people." Cotton was 
no longer king; and the North, that debatable land, vras 
found at last. AVhatever their leaders might believe, there 
was but one thought with the mass of the people, — to fight 

1 This song was said to have originated at Fort "Warren, and was 
sung universally by the Massachusetts soldiers. The last line of the 
refrain was thus sung, — 

" But Ilia soul's marching on." 



96 MEMOIR OF 

for the old flag, and save the countiy from dismemberraent. 
Emancipation ^\as an aftcrthonght, forced into the conflict 
b}' the exigencies of the times. The rich and influential 
classes (with few exceptions) were for peace on an}* terms. 
To save the Union with or without slaver}- was the central 
thought even of Massachusetts. As soon as oar troops 
appeared at the South, the slaves began to escape, and come 
into camp, where they were seized as contraband of war. 
On the alarm being given that the Union soldiers were 
advancing, the secessionists had told their slaves to go and 
hide in the woods, else the Northern soldiers would kill 
them. But they said, "We knew better. Wc thought we 
could run to j'ou. "We have been praying for you since 
March." Southern traders and merchants repudiated their 
Northern debts, and there was no longer an}- interchange of 
products. Cotton rose to an enormous price, and the mill- 
owners of Lowell, Lawrence, and Manchester, began to sufler. 
Northern merchants would send no more breadstuffs South. 
A Charleston trader sent to Philadelphia for fifty barrels of 
flour ; and this answer was telegraphed back : " Eat 3"our 
cotton." 

At a meeting of the Bird Club, June 7, 18G1, Mr. 
Sumner said, "Gen. Scott has complete command of our 
army of a hundred thousand men. He is a tyrant in his 
methods of control. lie lies on his lounge in bis room (for 
he suffers from gout) , and with a sticlc points out the desired 
places on the maps with which his Avail is covered, and gives 
his commands. Some one asked him how he should treat 
Jeff Davis when he got him, and he answered by significantly 
clinching his right hand." It was said that the rebellion 
could be subdued in six weeks. Jul}- 21 the battle of Bull 
Run was fought, and the country at last saw what the war 
really meant. " Warrington " said, " There can be no peace 
and no compromise until the rebels are beaten in a great and 
decisive battle, or until they have beaten us in a great 
and decisive battle. The North and the South, the United 
States and the Cotton Confederacy, cannot live together, 



' ' WABEING ton:' 97 

whether under one government or two, on equal terms. One 
or the other must succumb ; and to every man who talks 
of peace or compromise, or our ' misguided Southern breth- 
ren,' we must say with Hotspur, — 

* This is no world 
To play with mammets, and to tilt with lips: 
We must have bloody noses and cracked crowns, 
And pass them current too.' " ^ 

The doughface was ever^^where catering to the South ; 
and as Henry Wilson said, while it was death for one of 
our soldiers to steal a secession chicken, a Massachusetts 
colouel was said to have sent a fugitive back to his owner, 
and the papers did not condemn the act. But recruiting 
went on in spite of doughface secessionists and a divided 
North. The secession element in the machinery of govern- 
ment is well illustrated by an extract from ""Warrington" 
(in 18G3) on the " secesh joint : " — 

"A curious instance of the way the Navy Department blunders has 
been related to me. Perhaps you remember the ' secesh joint ' in the 
machinery of the steamship 'Mississippi.' If you do not, let me 
remind you that this steamer sailed one day from Charlestown Navy 
Yard, and had got out a few miles, when she found herself crippled 
by the breaking of a joint in the machinery. Upon examination, it 
was found that the joint was made of India-rubber, carefully con- 
cealed from observation. One Quiun was accused of doing the mis- 
chief ; yet he was allowed to leave the yard, and is now in the rebel 
navy, which, I venture to say, he does not furnish with India-rubber 
joints. He was, in fact, guiltless of this offence to ' The Mississippi.' 
There is now on file at the war department a letter from a most 
respectable man, who declares that another engineer, an Englishman 
named Green, confessed to him that lie made the * secesh joint.' He 
pretended, to be sure, that it was an honest piece of work, and the 
right thing to do. Now, where do you suppose this Green is ? Super- 
intending the repairs on the steamship ' Niagara,' at the Charlestown 
Navy Yard. It is all right, of course, but hard to understand." 

It will be remembered that no attempt is made to give a 
detailed account of the great events of this time ; but, in 

1 New-York Tribune. 



98 MEMOIR OF 

order to show Mr. Robinson's part in tliera, it is necessary 
for his biographer to touch upon them ; and, if I seem too 
minute in recalling all his writings during these eventful 
3'ears, it is because of the desire to sliow where some of the 
"gun-metal" came from that was used in these and other 
stirring campaigns.^ It was not alone the soldier at the 
front who fought the battle of emancipation. 

In 18G1 there was not a newspaper in Boston, except " The 
Bee" and "The Tocsin," that advocated the prosecution 
of the war and the abolition of slaver^'. " "NYarrington " 
tried in vain to get emancipation articles into several of the 
leading Boston newspapers. He wrote on steadily, how- 
ever, for " The Republican" and " The Tribune," and tried 
to show the countr}- its duty. His leaders in " The Tribune " 
advocated immediate emancipation long before it became 
the polic}' of the administration, and urged that the slaves 
should be called to fight in the war that was really waged for 
them and their cause. lie said, ""We don't deserve to beat 
while we ignore the black man, and the help that two hundred 
thousand black soldiers can bring us." ^ "The Tribune," 
though an emancipation paper, found many of his anti- 
slavery and war articles too strong for its columns ; and they 
were not printed. Jul^' 8, 1861, the last "Bee" appeared 
with a rousing antislavcr}' article (written by " "Warrington" 
that morning) , and a speech by AVendell Phillips ; and, to 
use his favorite expression in such experiences, ]Mr. Robin- 
son was " on his oars " again. For the first time in all his 
newspaper life, he felt discouraged. There was again no 
place for his pen in Boston ; and he was obliged to be silent 
when he felt he could sa^- so much to the purpose. He had 
been reading manuscript and doing other literary work for 
"The Atlantic Monthly" in 18G0-G1 ; but about this time 
he lost this occupation. 

1 Appendix B. 

2 Mr. llobinson, with other antislavery people, was afraid that the 
South would emancipate first, before Pros. Lincoln saw it to be his 
duty. Wlio can say wliat the difference in the result would have been, 
if it had seen the issue first, and adopted this wise policy? 



"WARRINGTON." 99 

The children were now old enough to meet their father at 
night when he came home with, " Have you got any thing to 
do yet, papa ? ' ' He was for the first time obliged to borrow 
money to support his family. Some of the Boston merchants, 
in the fall of 18G1, manufactured cloth army-mittens for the 
soldiers, and furnished them, cut out and read}^ to sew, to 
the Soldiers' Aid Societies and to individuals. Thinking 
that, when such articles as her husband could write were not 
wanted, it was high time some cheaper talent was called 
upon to help support the familj', Mrs. Robinson secured 
some of these mittens, and made them at seventy-five cents 
a dozen. She stitched them on the sewing-machine, the 
mother-in-law pressed them, and the children turned them. 
Much of the army work was not done as it should have 
been ; but the employer pronounced this work better done 
than it need to be. It may seem strange to Mr. Robinson's 
friends who know nothing of newspaper prices that his cir- 
cumstances should have been so straitened when he was 
writing weekly letters and articles in "The Republican" 
and "Tribune," many of them two columns long. It is 
the duty of his biographer to explain this matter ; and I do 
it, not in a spirit of complaint, but as an excuse for his pov- 
erty. I hope, also, that this explanation ma}- be of benefit to 
any future "Warrington," so that he maybe better cared 
for in this regard, spared such pecuniary struggles, and 
saved to do his work a little longer ; for it is not easy to 
find another like him. "The Tribune" letters were five 
dollars apiece in 1861 ; the price being afterwards raised to 
ten dollars a column. The price paid for "The Springfield 
Republican " letters was two dollars apiece in 1856, and in 
1861 four dollars a weekly- letter, long or short. In 1865 
seven dollars, and in 1867 (after "The Tribune " raised its 
price) ten dollars, a letter was paid. Finally (after 1870) 
twelve dollars was reached, which was the highest price the 
"Warrington" letters ever commanded. For much of his 
writing, as I have shown, he was paid nothing, gladlj' giv- 
ing it without price as his contribution towards the cause of 



100 MEMOIR OF 

freedom. He had such an humble estimate of his own 
labors, that he never complained of the compensation given^ 
him. I say "given him;" for he was seldom known to 
set a price on his writings, and took whatever was oflered 
without demur. Let me say here, that he was always very 
thankful for the opportuuit}' offered him in " The Republi- 
can ' ' to say what he thought ; and this was worth more to 
him than all else. It was considered somewhat wonderful 
that this newspaper should print what he said, when he spoke 
so plainl}- ; but in spite of his fierce radicalism, and the com- 
plaints of subscribers, no attempt was made to mutilate or 
alter his letters until 1862, when Mr. Bowles was absent in 
Europe. The gentleman left in charge of " The Republi- 
can " then attempted something of the sort, which resulted 
in a spicy correspondence. From "Warrington's" answers 
to this gentleman's letters I have selected the following 
extracts : — 

" If it be your object, as I presume it is, to drive me out of your 
columns, you can achieve it very easily, and need not make so many 
words aboiit it. I am mindful of my obligations to my absent friend 
Mr. Bowles, and shall place the responsibility where it belongs. You 
cannot place upon me any sucli alternative as you mention ; viz., that 
I must be subordinate to you (in tlie sense of agreeing not to ' neu- 
tralize,' or attempt to neutralize, the counsels of 'The Itepublican'), 
or that you must be subordinate to me. As I liave never dreamed of 
making you subordinate to me, the first horn of the dilemma is want- 
ing; and I should not only feel personally disgraced, but should con- 
sider myself a traitor to my country in her liour of need, if I coidd 
consent to drag along in the tail of ' events,' floating like a dead lish 
down the current, instead of trying, man-fashion, to create events, 
and make that public opinion which shall by and by, if not too late, 
drag Lincoln up to his duty. Events! — the protests of earnest men 
against treason and twattle are events. You advise me to look over 
my letters. I have no time to do so ; but I know, without looking, that 
my opinions have been proved sound, and my predictions have been 
verified by results. I venture to say, that not in one single particular 
where I have differed from 'The Republican' have events failed to 
justify me, and to prove it in the wrong. I, and such as I, lead the 
people along; and you lag behind, and then take credit to yourself for 
being in harmony with the people whom you have tardily followed. 
I am obliged to you for expressing au interest iu my behalf; but it is 



"WAREINGTON." 101 

not a matter of choice with me : I cannot keep silence, unless I am 
compelled to. I will add, however, that your policy as to me is an 
innovation ; for, during the six or seven years I have written for ' The 
Republican,' I have quite as often run against, as in conformity with, 
its doctrines. I have reason to believe, moreover, that this fact con- 
stitutes the principal value of my letters to the paper in a pecuniaiy 
point of view. If I write, I must write as I think and feel and ' know.' 
In matters of taste and exj^ressiou I will try to improve : but I can- 
not repress my conviction as to any party in vogue, or any man in 
power ; for I am no man's man, — not even yours, my dear " — 



102 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VII. 

CLERK OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE OF 
KEPRESENTATIVES. 

[1862-1870.] 

" Scriptural autbority for my office. Palfrey's ' History of New England ' gives 
an account of Cotton's draught of laws for Massachusetts in 1G36. He endeavored 
to find biblical authority for most of its provisions. For instance, ' Everj' court 
shall have ... a secretary to enroll all the .acts of the court;' for which the 
authority is Jer. xxxvi. 10 : ' Then read Barucli in the book the words of Jeremiali 
in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan Uio 
scribe, in the higher court.' " — Wabiungtox. 

When the Republican party came into power, on the 
election of Mr. Lincoln, a great man}- men expected to get 
into office under the new administration ; and Mr. Robinson 
was besieged by many of these office-seekers, who wislied to 
obtain his signature to their petitions, and his indorsement 
of their claims. He was told by his friends that now was 
the time to look out for himself; that, for the asking, he 
could have almost any office in the gift of the Republican 
party. He, however, declined to ask for any thing ; main- 
taining, now as always, that he " would hold no office to 
which he was not elected by the votes of the people." On 
this principle, he had, in several instances, refused proflfered 
situations under government. Gov. Andrew had become 
interested in him, and was desirous of presenting his name as 
a candidate for clerk of the House of Representatives. In 
a letter to Hon. P. W. Chandler, he said, — 

" I want to interest you, so far as may be, in the matter of the 
clerkship of the House of Representatives. I do hope we shall have 
a good, faithful, honest, working session, nobody's private or public 

f 



"WARRINGTON." 103 

axes ground at the expense of the Commonwealth, and of just and 
unimpeachable legislation. One great thing is to get a true man for 
clerk. There is only one candidate who has yet, to my knowledge, 
appeared : that is William S. Bobinson. He is a thoroughly honest 
man, of large experience in such work, and every way capable. 
Knowing last spring that Mr. Stowe was not to be a candidate 
again, I brought the subject to his and Robinson's attention, in the 
hope that we might, in the coming year, have Mr. Robinson in the 
service, where I am sure there will be nothing done by him unsuita- 
ble or wrong, and no effort unexerted to do right in his office." 

Mr. Robinson had lived to see the party which he had 
labored and sacrificed so much to establish, at last in power. 
What did he ask of it in return for his services ? or what did 
his friends ask for him? An office to which he must be 
chosen annually to serve the representatives of the people, 
and worth, at the most, sixteen hundred dollars a year, includ- 
ing an assistant's pay. AVriting of this matter in 1872, he 
said, — 

" In the year 1862, which was the first of my clerkship, my actual 
salary (i.e., exclusive of the pay of an assistant, paid by myself) was 
only sixteen hundred dollars. Then for a year or two, and until the 
work became insupportable, I did without an assistant, and received 
two thousand dollars. Obliged to employ help, the legislature paid 
for it. During the war, with a great number of others, we got 
twenty-four hundred dollars, by means of a percentage ; and at last, 
under a bill ' equalizing ' pay, they put us down, without remon- 
strance, to twenty-two hundred dollars, but, before the session was 
over, discovered the comparative injustice they had done, and set it 
at twenty-five hundred dollars. Then, for two or three years, came 
gratuities. One year, the Senate insisted, for a day or two, in voting 
its own clerk five hundred dollars extra, and in defeating the same 
amount which was moved for myself. The two salary bills in one 
year (one reducing the pay), making a real increase from twenty-four 
hundred dollars to twenty-five hundred dollars, were the ones Butler ^ 
wenti'ound blathering about in 1871 or 1872." 

AVhat would such eminent servants of the people as the 
gentleman last named have thought of a mere bagatelle like 
this? When remonstrated with for his modesty in being 
satisfied with so small a return for such great services, he 

1 Ex-Major-Gen. B. F. Butler. 



104 MEMOIR OF 

replied, that he thought he could do more good in that posi- 
tion than in an}- other. lie was elected clerk of the House 
of licpresentatives in the legislature of 1862, as successor of 
William Stowe of Springfield, receiving ever}- vote but two, 
to the surprise of his friends, who expected some opposition 
from the conservative members. He was full of gratitude to 
those who had worked so faithfulh* for him. Among these 
friends were Henr}' L. Pierce, Z. M. Crane (who rode two 
hundred miles to help him) , Caleb Waitt (a Democrat from 
his own town of Maiden), Thomas Drew, and numberless 
others, including members of his " parish " from the western 
part of the State.^ To his wife he said, " ' The Springfield 
Republican ' letters have brought us a harvest at last," The 
good fortune was talked over at home among the children. 
Said one, "iVbzo I can go to Boston;" and another, "We 
can go to the beach again ; " while the bab\- lisped out, 
"Kirk of the House! — he ain't Kirk of the House: he's 
papa." I never saw him so elated. The pressure of care 
was at once removed : he assumed all his old buo^'anc}' of 
spirits, and was almost the same as before his little boy died. 
In this sudden accession of plent}' the parents saw education 
for the children, and " a new way to pay old debts." Will 
it be believed that the wife spent the " wee sma' hours " in 
making the new clerk's old clothes look presentable for the 
opening of the legislatui'e ? He had had good occasion for 
some time past to practise his axiom, that " econom}- is hon- 
est}-." He carried this axiom into the management of the 
l^ecuniary affairs of his oflBce, \fhose expense^ it has been 
said, were kept at a remarkabl}- low figure, considering the 
"inflation of prices during his term. He resisted the attempts 
made to increase his own salar}- or that of other State-house 
officials on the ground that the people were taxed too much 
to support the government, and that the salaries of such 
officers were higher than they ought to be. In 1872, of this 
matter he writes, — 

1 Mr. Robinson Avas fond of calling liiti " 'Warrington " letters his ser- 
mons, and their readers his " parish: " he was always glad to think ho\r 
mnrli larrer it was than that of most nreachers. 



"WARRINGTON." 105 

" I believe that Mr. GifEord and I may congratulate ourselves that 
the salaries of the Senate and House clerks have been raised only 
ninety-five per cent in a dozen years or more, while the increase in 
other State-house salaries has been four hundred or five hundred per 
cent: and the other expenses appertaining to the offices which we 
filled, and which he now fills, are only twenty-five or thirty per cent 
higher; in fact, a smaller increase than in any other department. 
The stationery bills, I am quite sure, are no larger now than they 
were a dozen years ago ; much less, indeed, than in 1855. Moses Kim- 
ball cut off the House knives some years ago, and I found no great 
difficulty in keeping the item out of the appropriation bill after- 
ward." 

Of Mr. Robinson as clerk, the speakers under whom he 
served bear testimony to his " consummate official service." 
In his valedictor}^ of 1865 Hon. A. H. Bullock (then 
speaker) said, — 

" I should be insensible to my own consciousness and recollection 
if I were not especially to declare how uniformly he has aided me, to 
an extent that has gone far to make my duties almost easy of perform- 
ance. Whoever shall preside in this chamber, I can wish him no 
better associate." 

Writing of this matter, Mr. G. H. Monroe said, — 

" Mr. Robinson soon acquitted himself of any obligation to any- 
body by his course in this office. It was the State really that was 
favored. No legislative body ever had a better clerk. He was author- 
ity for years among the members ; and was decidedly the superior, in 
knowledge of parliamentary law, to any speaker he ever served with, 
with, perhaps, one exception." 

His bright and cheerful wa}' of addressing the members 
as they came towards his desk is well remembered. He 
ahva3-s had a repartee ready ; was often seen joking with the 
speaker between his rulings ; and it was suspected b}' some 
that he made a farce out of the proceedings of the Great and 
General Court. At the same time, he was always readj' ta 
lend his assistance to any member, give of his knowledge, 
and point out the best way to solve difficult questions on 
legislative matters. It would be impossible to cite the 
amount of clerical writing done b}' him during the eleven 
3' ears of his clerkship. Besides the work belonging to his 



106 MEMOIR OF 

office, there is no doubt that many bills and reports relating 
to legislative action in the great events of those years were 
drawn up and prepared by him. If his hand could be traced, 
it might be found in even more important documents. 

In 18G2 the weekly "Commonwealth" (now belonging 
to Mr. Slack) was started by the late George L. Stearns, 
who paid largely for its support during its first year, and 
used it to advocate the re-election of Charles Sumner, the 
adoption of the emancipation polic^vand the enlistment of 
colored soldiers. M. D. Conway, F, B. Sanborn, and 
other writers, had editorial charge of it ; and a radical anti- 
slaverj- policy' was advocated, without regard to the supposed 
interests of public men. In 1863 F. W. Bird and others 
undertook to support the paper, and did so until it was given 
to Mr. Slack. ""Warrington," though not employed upon 
it as a writer, contributed to its columns from the time of its 
starting, for very little if any compensation, — glad enough 
to get a chance to sa}' his say again in a Boston newspaper. 
When its managers were looking for a suitable person to 
take this paper off their hands, here would seem to have 
been a chance to provide for a radical antislaver}' editor 
who had nothing to do at his favorite vocation. Mr. Robin- 
son, however, never presented his claims ; neither the posi- 
tion nor the paper was offered him : and ' ' The Common- 
wealth " was finally given to Mr. Slack. "Warrington" 
retained his place as writer, however, for merelj- a nominal 
price. Among the articles marked in his scrap-book " Not 
paid for," those from "The Commonwealth" figure prettj-- 
largel}'. Many of his friends thought, at the time, that the 
paper should have been placed under his control, if given to 
anybod}' ; but, probably on account of his lack of the so-called 
/'business faculty," it was passed into other hands. He 
continued to furnish the fire^ for " The Commonwealth " for 
a peiiod of ten or twelve years, during which time the 

1 In 18(>5 tlie editor of the Coiniuonwoaltli liad an offer to go to 
Cohuiibus, O., to edit a paper there, on tlie strength of some recon- 
struction aiticles in this pai)er written by " "Warrington." 



"WARRINGTON." 107 

"Warrington" letters were copied weeldy into that paper 
from " Tlie Springfield Republican," or, as he said sen- 
tentiously, " stolen without the permission of the author." 
For the privilege of republishing these letters, Mr. Robinson 
was never offered, and never received, a cent. He com- 
plained less of this, however, than that his letters were 
altered to suit the needs of an officeholder's organ. He 
expressed this himself in 1872: " My letters have been 
printed for several years in ' The Commonwealth,' but, for a 
long time past, in such a garbled wa3' as to convey little or no 
idea of their original contents." 

In 1863 Mr. Robinson became secretary of the Republi- 
can State Committee, and held that office until about 1868. 
During these j-ears he wrote the addresses, memorials, and 
(his part of) the resolutions which usually emanate from 
that bod}'. This was then an important office ; for the times 
demanded that the documents of the State Committee should 
abl}^ set forth the principles and polic}^ of the Republican 
leaders. The party in Massachusetts had become as pro- 
gressive on the antislavery question as even " Warrington" 
could desire ; and these documents expounded most forcibl}'' 
the doctrines upon which the part}^ was established, and for 
which it labored. He remained secretary of this committee 
so long as the leaders of the party were in sympathy with his 
opinions : when that was no longer the case, he resigned. 

The forming of colored regiments Avas among the great 
events of the year 1863. It was a pathetic sight to see 
the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts (the first colored regiment) 
march through the streets of Boston, bound for Newbern, 
N.C. Three hundred of them, it was said, were fugitive 
slaves, mostl}- from the West. The}' had a cowed look, as if 
used to beseeching : they did not look among the crowd 
with the eager, hungry gaze of the white soldier, as if in 
search of a friendly face. Poor fellows ! many of them had 
never known a friend. But here and there a colored woman, 
with proud and joyful look, walked hy the side of her soldier. 
The lieutenant-colonel of this regiment said he did not see 



108 ifEMOIR OF 

that the black soldier differed raueh from the white one. 
Tliey found fault with tlieir rations ; were inclined to sliirk ; 
some were lazy ; and all wanted their pay, much after the 
manner of white soldiers. History has kept the record of 
how well they fought and died for their country. 

It would seem that God was read}- for our armies to be 
victorious, since the "iron-skin brigade" had hardl}* begun 
to fight when victory was ours. Grant advanced ; ^Meadc 
pursued Lee back into. Virginia ; and the cry, "On to Rich- 
mond ! " uttered prematurely a year or two before, began to 
sound in earnest. "One Meade," as he was called, had 
commanded onl}' one week, and Gettysburg was fought and 
won. "Was ever a reputation made so quickly !" said 
" Warrington." Vicksburg and Port Hudson surrendered, 
and all was no longer " quiet on the Potomac." The South 
grew poorer as the North became richer and more prosperous. 
Confederate scrip was given by the peck for a gold dollar, 
while money was plenty at the North Avith gold at 2.25. 
Fortunes were made everyday, and "shoddy" began to be a 
significant word. The soldier sent home his pay ; and fami- 
lies, that, before the war, had only the bare necessities of 
life, now revelled in luxury. While at the South almost 
every man and boy was a conscript, our quota was filled 
without a second draft, as "Warrington" had said could 
easily be done ; and 
"We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more," 

was sung in ever}- town and city at the North. Many a 
3-oung man, trained from his cradle in antislaver}- principles, 
enlisted for the sole purpose of " getting one good lick at 
slavery." The people were right at last, and led the domi- 
nant part}' along the line of freedom. P^ven the conserva- 
tive portion, who had so long objected to the needed 
medicine, were now willing, as it was coarsely expressed, 
to "swallow the negro." Pres. Lincoln's edict of emanci- 
pation luid been put in force Jan. 1, l.SG;3;^ and the 

1 The edict of emancipation had been promulgated in September, 



"WARRINGTON." 109 

"peculiar institution" was becoming a thing of the past. 
No fault was found now with "Warrington's" writings. 
He had plenty of offers to write for newspapers ; and, as 
events crowded upon each other, his opinion, said to be of 
more value than fifty newspapers, was eagerly sought and 
extensively quoted. 

In Ma}', 18G4, Gen. Grant had made the declaration, 
which will go far to save his name from oblivion, that he 
would " fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer," and 
was in hot pursuit of Gen. Lee. Atlanta was taken in Sep- 
tember, and Sheridan was marching towards victory. Gold 
went down, provisions cheapened ; and in December Savan- 
nah surrendered, and the "back of the rebellion was 
broken." Gen. McClollan had been nominated for President 
(in 18G4) b}' the "Copperhead" part}-, in opposition to 
Abraham Lincoln. There was great political excitement 
over this election : frauds at the ballot-box {then a new 
infamy) were anticipated ; and, to prevent illegal voting, the 
polls were guarded by armed soldiers in New York, Chicago, 
and other doubtful cities. The intense excitement at this 
time cannot be appreciated or described except by those who 
were witnesses. Women and children were as interested as 
legal voters ; for it was felt by all that the fate of the coun- 
try depended upon the continuation of Mr. Lincoln's admin- 
istration, and the success of the policy of emancipation. 
When Mr. Robinson returned from the polls on election-day, 
he brought home a McClellau and a Lincoln presidential 
ticket ; and, calling his children out into the garden, he 

18G2. For the ratification-meeting at Fanenil Hall "Warrington" 
wrote the resolutions. One of them was as follows : — 

" Hesolved, That we rejoice with unspeakable joy that the cause of the country- 
is now seen to be the cause of universal and impartial freedom ; that liberty and 
union are henceforth and forever made one and inseparable by the glorious proc- 
lamation of the 22d of September; that the edict wliicli gives freedom to three 
millions of enslaved men strikes, at the same moment, a fatal blow at the most 
wicked rebellion ever Icnown in historj'. We thank the President for this great act, 
which is not less one of statesmanship and justice than of the most imperative 
military necessity, God bless Abraham Lincoln 1 " 



110 MEMOIR OF 

stuck the l\rcClollan ticket on a hook, and set fire to it. while 
the cliikhen gave three qheers for " ohl Abe," — "to teach 
them," he said, " tlieir political duty in their youtli." An 
anecdote will illustrate how the uneducated voter is misled 
by electioneering buncombe. A few days after election, an 
adopted fellow-citizen remarked, " I don't see as things are 
much higher since." — "Since what?" asked Mr. Robin- 
son. " Why," said he, " they told me, that, if Lincoln was 
elected again, things would be so high, that we couldn't get 
any thing for our mone}' : but it ain't true ; for they ain't 
quite so high as the}' tvas." Mr. Lincoln was re-elected by 
a majority unexpectedly large, McClellan getting only twenty 
out of the two hundred and fort}' electoral votes. Gov. 
Andrew was also re-elected.^ 

Jan. 6, 18G5, Charleston was evacuated, and the old flag 
once more floated over Fort Sumter. Wilmington had been 
captured, and Sherman was marching northward. March 
20, 1SG5, the Rebel Congress adjourned sine die; and in Maj- 
the Confederate President, Jeff Davis, was taken prisoner by 
Lieut. -Col. Pritchard of the Fourth Michigan.'' The Con- 

1 In his inaugural of 1865, Gov. Andrew made a memorable sugges- 
tion with regard to a portion of the citizens of Massacliusetts. He said, 
"I know of no more useful object to which the Commonwealth can 
lend its aid than that of a movement adopted in a practical way to 
open the door of emigration to young women, who are wanted for 
teachers, and for every other appropriate as well as domestic employ- 
ment, in the remote ^Yest, but who are leading anxious and aimless 
lives in New England." By the " anxious and aimless" women, it was 
supposed that the governor meant the widowed, single, or otherwise 
unrepresented portion of the female citizens of the Commonwealtli. 
This advice was kindly offered, no doubt; but it was received by tliose 
for wliom it was intended as unasked advice is apt to be. Some mem- 
bers of the legislature, liowever, thought more favorably of it; and it 
was currently reported that a member of the Senate actually made the 
following proposition : " That the ' anxious and aimless ' should assemble 
on the Common on a certain day of the year, and that Western men 
who wanted wives should be invited to come here and select them." 
Legislators who make such propositions do not foresee the time when 
those nearest and dearest to them may bo classed among the sujier- 
fluous or " anxious and aimless " women. 

2 Mr. Greeley, in his American Conflict, denies the story that Jef- 



''WARRINGTON." Ill 

federates were about to arm their slaves ; but it was too late. 
April 2, Richmond fell ; and on the. 9th Lee surrendered his 
army, and Pres. Lincoln went to the front. On Feb. 4, 1865, 
Abraham Lincoln had consummated the crowning act of his 
great and noble life by signing the amendment to the Con- 
stitution, prohibiting slavery forever. Gov. Andrew had 
ordered, that, as soon as the telegraph should announce that 
the President had affixed his signature, a hundred guns 
should be fired on Boston Common, and the church-bells 
should be rung. 

The people of the North were filled with unspeakable joy 
and thankfulness. Great illuminations were planned ; but 
the lamps of victory were not to be lighted, and the people 
used the "oil of jo}^ for mourning." The good President 
was assassinated April 14 (1865), and by his tragic death 
the joy was turned to sorrow. But for him — he had gone, 
in the annals of his country, again and forever to the front. 
The war was now over, and in September our troops began 
to disband. vThe Fifty-fourth had proved itself as good a 
fighting regiment as if its soldiers had not been colored^ It 
came home without its brave, young, fair-haired colonel, who 
was killed in the vanguard of liberty for the negro race.^ In 
December the regiments paraded to the tune, "When 
Johnny comes marching home again," and delivered up their 
tattered colors, stained with the blood of many a fallen 
comrade, and returned to their homes and their vocations. 
In man}' cases, their old situations were open to them ; and 
they took up the hammer, the trowel, the hoe, or the pen, 
as if they had lain them down but j'csterda}-. Said Wendell 
Phillips, "There never was such a thing known before in 
the history of the world as so large an ami}' of soldiers 
disbanding, and returning peacefully to the environments of 
civil life." 

The soldiers had done their part well ; and now came the 

ferson Davis tried to evade pursuit by concealing his sex (and his 
offences) in liis wife's garments. 
1 Robert G. Shaw. 




112 MEMOIR OF 

time for statesmen and politicians to do theirs. The radi- 
cal portion of the Republican party had no faith in Pres. 
Johnson, over whose conduct, both in pnblic and private, 
they had good reason to mourn. Reconstruction must be 
considered, and all its difficulties and dangers must be met. 
At the Republican Convention at "Worcester, in September, 
I8G0, Mr. Robinson offered this resolution, ^Yhich was the 
keynote of the situation : — 

"Resolved, That the entire pacification of the country, and the 
restoration of order, is an object of the first importance, and one 
whicli requires the exercise of the most deliberate and cautious wis- 
dom in order tliat there may be no necessity of retracing our steps ; 
and we agree with the Republicans of Pennsylvania, who, in their 
recent State Convention, expressed the conviction that the people 
lately in revolution cannot safely be intrusted with the political 
rights which they forfeited by their treason, until tliey have proved 
their acceptance of the results of the war by incorporating thom in 
constitutional provisions, and securing to all men within their borders 
the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; 
and we call upon Congress, before whom must speedily come the 
whole question of re-organizing the Southern communities, to see to 
it that the loyal people, white and black, shall have the most perfect 
guaranties for safety before any final steps are taken toward the 
re-admission of the revolted people of the South to their forfeited 
rights." 

This was very extensivcl}' quoted and talked about ; one 
gentleman saying before a Methodist Sunday school, that 
" the best gospel he had seen for a long time was the resolu- 
lution passed at the Worcester Convention." 

Members of the legislature of 18G3, in appreciation of 
his services as clerk, presented Mr. Robinson with a gold 
watch and chain. In response to the presentation-speech, 
he said, — 

" Gkxtlemen of the House of Representatives, — I have 
endeavored, but in vain, to collect my thoughts together, somewhat 
jaded as they have been by the fatigues of the last two days of the 
session, sufficiently to make a suitable response to tliis gift and the 
kind expression which accompanies it. You will not expect me to 
make a speech. I bad, indeed, applied to one or two young members 
of the bar, some of whom made such eloquent speeches on the Navy 



''WARRINGTON." 113 

Bill ; and tliey had partly promised to make a speech for me : but they 
have failed to come. In this emergency, just as the speaker was con- 
cluding his eloquent remai'ks, I luckily remembered the burden of a 
German proverb, which I thought might serve as an excuse for my- 
self on this occasion: 'Speech is silvern; but silence is golden.' I 
thought that perha^DS it might have been made by the originator of 
it for some similar occasion, and intended to indicate that he who 
receives silver pitchers, goblets, and services, should make eloquent 
speeches, and he who receives watches should keep mum. I cannot 
fail, however, to add my testimony to that of the speaker as to the 
promptness and admirable manner in which the business of the 
session has been conducted, and to exjiress the belief that the Blue 
Book, when it appears, consisting as it does of two sets, — public acts 
and private axes, — will be honorable to the legislature. With these 
remarks, sir, as complimentary as I am able to make them, and not 
more complimentary than the members of the legislature deserve, — 
to you, gentlemen, individually and collectively, and to you, sir, 
for the kind manner in which you have expressed yourself, — I return 
my sincere and heartfelt thanks." 

The watch is inscribed as follows : — 

" Presented to William S. Eobinson, Clerk of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, by the members, Boston, 1863." 

He was re-elected clerk in 1864, ever}- vote being cast for 
him. Conscious of the ill feeling occasioned by his sharp 
censures upon individual members, he was every ^-ear sur- 
prised b}- the unanimity- of the House in his favor, and won- 
dered that some movement was not started to prevent his 
re-election. To show by how slender a tenure his bread and 
butter was held, I ma}' sa}- that every year the members of 
his famil}' went through the same phases of mind when he 
said, as usual, " I maj- not be re-elected: I wonder I have 
held the office so long." The children alwa3-s hoped that 
he would keep it until the}- were old enough to go to work. 
In May, 1864, by invitation of Gov. Gilmore, Mr. Robinson 
went to Concord, N.II., to assist in starting a daily news- 
paper, " The Concord Monitor." Gov. Gilmore wrote, that, 
if he had wanted a man to be the mere tool of a faction, he 
should never have applied to him. What he wished was to 
make a thoroughly "live" and independent paper, which 



114 MEMOIR OF 

would be an uncompromising advocate of the Union cause 
and of the national administration. ]\Ir. Robinson staid in 
Concord a month, until the paper was well launched, and 
then returned home, satisfied that the field of usefulness was 
not so large in New Hampshire as in Massachusetts. lie 
said, " Massachusetts is the place for ideas, and the place to 
which men look for ideas. The men of ideas ought to stay 
here, I think ; and I, as one of the men who write, ought to 
sta}' here also, and express their ideas." 

In 1865 a movement was begun b}- Mr. Robinson's friends 
to use his name as candidate for secretary of state. Several 
newspapers urged his claims, and influential friends tried 
to persuade him to consider the subject. One of them 
wrote, — 

" Give it your best consideration. It is a bettor place than yours. 
It is a comfortable office, in which you could luake others do the 
work, and yourself have more time for literary work." 

Though assured that he could get the nomination without 
an}' effort on his part, he refused to have his name used. 
He was disposed, as usual, to "let well enough alone;" 
and besides, he did not wish to do au}- thing to hurt Mr. 
Warner, the incumbent, who was his personal friend. It 
was jocosely remarked of this matter, that it would be safe 
to offer a premium for another man in the State who would 
let such an office as this go a-begging. In 18GG " The 
New-York Tribune" made "Warrington" the offer of ten 
dollars a column for weekl}' letters, and articles "to be 
written as often as you please, and as sharp and pointed as 
you please." He was receiving but seven dollars apiece 
for his "Warrington" letters, many of them over two col- 
umns long ; and being anxious to educate his children, and 
pa}' for his home, he thought it his dut}- to accept tliis 
proposition. He accordingl}' informed Mr. Bowles of this 
determination ; wrote what he called his last letter in " The 
Republican ; " and on Jan. 1, 18G7, began the "Warrington " 
letters in " The Tribune." Onlv a few of these letters, 
however, were published over this nom de plume, Mr. 



"WARRINGTON:' 115 

Bowles having clenmrred to its use in the cokimns of " The 
Tribune ; " and they were, therefore, continued without sig- 
nature. Meanwhile, members of his flock Avere constantly 
inquiring at "The Republican" office for " 'Warrington,' 
that long-Tom down in Boston Harbor;" and its editor 
expressed so many kind regrets at losing him, that he 
wavered in his determination. Finally his warm affection 
for his " parish," with whom he felt so much at home and 
in sympathy, decided him ; and he returned to " The Repub- 
lican," thinking, no doubt, as he afterwards expressed it, 
that he was " like Andrew Fairservice in this, — that, if the 
editor of ' The Republican ' did not know when he had a 
good correspondent, I knew when I had a good ' medium ' 
for communication with the public, and a tolerant, kind, and 
gentlemanly friend." 

"Warrington" has been criticised for opposing what he 
called the narrow and impracticable policy of the prohibi- 
tionists ; but, on the other hand, no one ever opposed " free 
rum" more than he, both in his writings and in his public 
and private life. In 1867, in opposition to the prohibitory 
law and the State constabulary, a free (secret) rum organi- 
zation was started, called the "P. L. L.'s ; " and this he was 
never weary of opposing. Its members threatened him with 
loss of office, if he continued the fight ; and a sachem in their 
counsels called at his house one day to take him to task for 
something he had written. Mr. Robinson sat quietly-, and 
heard his visitor talk, for at least half an hour, answering 
onl}-, " I suppose so," or "I don't know ; " the latter being 
a favorite expression behind which he hid his opinions. 
After the "sachem" left, the children, who were present 
during the interview, asked, "Why didn't you say some- 
thing, papa?" — "I don't know," said he, smiling know- 
ingly. The next week's letter in "The Republican" 
contained his answer. 

At the election of clerk of the House in 18G8, this party, 
as they had threatened, opposed Mr. Robinson. An old 
Know-Nothing enem^' of his (a member of this secret order) 



116 MEMOIR OF 

received eighty-one votes. " The Republican " said of the 
result of this contest, that it "was a handsome success f6r 
the indomitable 'Warrington,' who had not onl}' the bum- 
mers of the P. L. L. faction down upon hira, but some 
parties of high and low degree in official station who were 
incensed at the freedom of his strictures." The loss of his 
office, forever threatened, was again, for a time, prevented. 
Free criticism of parties, individuals, and secret conclaves, 
was not then considered by a majoritj- of the members of 
the House of Representatives a sufficient offence to oflset the 
good and regular standing of a member of the Republican 
party. 

The woman-suffrage question was first presented to the 
legislature of Massachusetts at the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1853 b}^ a petition of Mrs. Abby B. Alcott^ and other 
women, "that they ma}' be allowed to vote on the amend- 
ments to be made to the Constitution." This request was 
a novel one, and, so far as known to the committee, was the 
first ever presented to an}' government or other political 
organization. The reasoning was able, and presented the 
case in an unanswerable manner. It was voted inexpedient 
to legislate upon the question, and the reasoning- was struck 
out by a vote of 108 to 44. This was establishing an unfor- 
tunate precedent with regard to this question ; for from that 
time, whenever it has come before our legislative bodies, it 
has met the same fate, — to have all just reasoning and argu- 
ment stricken out, and to be decided by unreasoning yeas 
and nays. Mr. Robinson's official connection with the 
enfranchisement of woman began in 18G8, when, with the 
assistance of Mr. F. W. Bird (a member of the legislature), 

1 Sister of Samuel J. May, and wife of A. Bronsou Aleott of Con- 
cord, !Mass. 

2 The committee to wliom the petition was referred made a report 
to the House, containinj? tlic i-easons set forth by the petitioners, and the 
committee's reasons for refusiii;^ it. These reasons wore struck out by 
a vote of 108 to 44, and "report that it is inexpedient for this con- 
vention to take any action in relation thereto" was all there was left 
of it. 



"WARRINGTON." 117 

he caused a woman-suffrage measure to be introduced into 
the House of Representatives, when it appeared for the first 
time in the orders of the da}', and was defeated, one-third of 
the House only voting in favor.^ 

He continued all through his official life to draw the atten- 
tion of legislators to this important subject, and to do all in 
his power to further its interests. He wrote memorials to the 
legislature, reports of committees, and helped secure commit- 
tee-i'ooms for hearings. His position as clerk of the House 
gave him great opportunities to help at the right time ; and, 
hy wise management, he brought the subject out of the limbo 
of contempt to which it had hitherto been doomed by the rep- 
resentatives of the people.^ While " Warrington " remained 
in office, the woman question always had a friend at court. 
Gov. Claflin, in his inaugural of 1871, was the first person to 
officiall}' present to the consideration of the people of the 
Commonwealth the subject of woman's rights as a citizen. 
"Warrington " firmly- believed in the political equality of the 
sexes, and surprised his friends by the soundness of his argu- 
ments, and the depth of his reasoning, on the subject. Many 

1 This year (1877) the "Woman-suffrage Bill was defeated by a vote 
of 122 to 83, or a two-fifths vote of the whole H(nise. This is a gain of 
one-flfteeiith (or (>§%) in ten years; and, as a two-thirds vote is necessary 
to get a bill through the House, according to tliis calculation the woman- 
suffrage cause will be successful in about forty years. This can be seen 
by the following proiiositiou : 61%: 26|%: :ten years — and forty years 
will be found as the answer to what maybe called this "Stebbins" 
problem. This would be disheartening, even if the premises were 
correct, and we were sure that the votes cast in its favor in 18GS repre- 
sented the real opinions and convictions of that legislature. Mr. Eol)- 
inson, iu si^eaking of this matter, said, that probably not so many 
members would have voted iu favor of the bill of 1808 if they had 
.suijposed there was any danger of its being carried. The hopeful signs, 
on the other hand, are, that the representatives of the people show more 
and more decision of opinion on both sides of the question. Q''lie little 
gain we have made in ten years encourages us to believe that we shall 
go faster by and by; the law of momentum being, that any moving 
body starting from a vacuum (the heavier the better) increases in speed 
as it advances in its course. 

2 It was moved by a member of the House of 18G9 that it be referred 
to the Committee on Graveyards. 



118 MEMOIR OF 

of them who did uot view the question from his stand-poiut 
found it hard to appreciate his conviction as to its impor- 
tance. In his early writings he had advocated the movement, 
and his later writings are still stronger in its favor. The last 
public action he took Avas in a committee meeting convened 
to devise new methods for advancing the cause of woman- 
suffrage. As he lost faith in the power of political parties 
for good, and as his belief in their leaders became shaken, 
he was more and more convinced of woman's capacit}' for 
government and self-government, and of the need that existed 
for her co-operation in public affairs. " No other cause," he 
said, "could supersede the woman cajse in importance, any 
more than anj' educational movement could supersede the 
governmental question." A letter of political advice, written 
by him in September, 1875, reads as follows : — 

" I wish you would tell Foster and Garrison that I think switching 
off upon the suffrage for tax-paying women a sacrifice of principle, 
and a very had example to set to other States. Don't let us he led 
away to such siinulcra of reform. It is all wrong. I would flatly 
vote against any such proposition. Even if it could he carried, it 
would not forward the general cause; for the tax-paying women 
would rest there, or a majority of them turn up tlicir noses at their 
weaker sisters, and do as the tax-paying men of Iihode Island (for 
example) have heen doing ever since their constitution was passed, 
— keep the non-tax paying men in the background. The true ground 
of principle is eqiialitv of iiiguts with man. Uumanity is a unit: 
one glory and one shame. Democracy means hi/, of, and for the peo- 
ple ; and the people are men and women subject to rules, as to age and 
residence, to be imposed only by general consent. This was the origin 
of the exclusion of women from voting, — general consent, even of 
women themselves, founded on the supposition that only an infinitesi- 
mally small number, if any, would ever want it, and the idea that 
they would always be in what was called a domestic sphere. Both 
these reasons are now gone. Large numbers of them now demand 
suffrage; and their sphere of operations and enterprise is widened, so 
that they not only have the rUjht, which they always had, but an 
increasing fitness, for civil life and government, of which the ballot is 
but the sign and symbol. Don't let us abandon the fundamental 
idea for any idea that parties will help us from fear or favor, or that 
seeming gain to a part is any thing but a drawback to the rest. As 
for parties, they don't fear you or love you yet. It is quite impossiblif 



"WARRINGTON:' 119 

tliat either party should ever grant presidential suffrage alone. If it 
passed an election, it would be overthrown by Congress or the courts. 
It is just what the court at Washington would require for tipping 
over the law. Don't vote for or aid rascals or quacks merely because 
they pretend friendship. The cause has not got rooted deeply enough 
in the minds of the voteks to make much liead-way or mind-way at 
the iwlls; and there is so little experience in politics among the 
women, and so much dishonesty among party leaders, that the dijffi- 
culties are very great. Ton ask if you shall go for a prohibitory or 
a labor candidate, provided he is for suffrage. By no means (if j^ou 
take my advice), itnless he has other qualifications. I, for several 
years, have scratched all unfit candidates; and I am too old, I hope, 
to advise any one to vote blindly, or to give pledges. I hold to my 
old opinion, that, if there is to be any meddling with politics at all, a 
new party, even if it does not get a liuudred votes (and it would not 
get more), would be the best. Following the Eepublican party is like 
the sea-voyager who lashed himself to the anchor to escape." 

In the Grant campaign of 18G8, Connecticut was consid- 
ered a very doubtful State. Gen. Hawlcy of " The Hart- 
ford Courant " was detailed b}^ the National Republican 
Committee as a speaker for the campaign, and consented to 
serve on condition that "• Warrington " should be secured to 
take his place on " The Courant." Mr. Robinson, desiring 
to increase his income for the purpose of sending his chil- 
dren to a private school, after much urging from Gen. Haw- 
ley and from a member of the National Committee, finally 
consented to go. He began work on " The Courant" Sept. 
10, 1868, with a leader and some squibs against the Copper- 
heads. The loading Democratic paper in Hartford the next 
da}'' accused " The Courant " of having imported " an editor 
of the boiled-down, disunionist, old-stjde, brimstone, Garri- 
son- and-Phillips school, from somewhere up in Massachu- 
setts, named Robinson." He wrote home, "I am here for 
the hard and earnest work of the campaign ; and if I feel 
well, and like to sta}-, I shall try to give the Copperhead 
papers enough to say." He staid in Hartford six weeks, 
and wrote, on the average, a column and a half a day. For 
this service he received two hundred dollars (including ex- 
penses) ; and, when Connecticut was saved to the Republi- 
cans, no doubt he thought himself well paid. 



120 MEMOIR OF 

Mr. Eobinson -was not so much elated over the election of 
Pres. Grant as some of his more sanguine political friends. 
He thought it a matter of expedienc}- ; that, if the Kcpubli- 
cans had not nominated him, the Democrats would have done 
so ; that Grant would have accepted either nomination, and 
been sure of election in either case. Charles Sumner's 
election to the Senate for the tliird lime was secured in 
1868 ; and on this occasion he wrote to Mr. Robinson as fol- 
lows : — 

CooLiDGE House, Sunday, Nov. 8, 18C8. 
My deae Correspondent, — I am happy in your personal sym- 
pathy on the recent election. The contrast between that first election 
to the Senate and the present promise is mighty. Few things like it 
in the Hfe of a public man. 

Ever sincerely yours, 

CnARLES Sumner. 

On Mr. Robinson's fiftieth birthday (Dec. 7, 1868), his 
friends, wishiug to give him a substantial testimonial of their 
appreciation of his services, held a reception, in honor of the 
occasion, at tlie house of Mr. F. W. Bird, in Boston. Manj^ 
friends who had been associated with him in public were 
there to greet him ; and congratulator}' letters were received 
from more than a hundred gentlemen. A few selections 
will show their character. Mr. J. M. Earle of "Worcester 
wrote, — 

" I could not deny myself the opportunity, presented by the proposed 
testimonial to W. S. Ilobinson, Esq., of throwing in my mite, as a 
token of appreciation of the ability, and steady, luiwavering fidelity 
and persistence, with which he has advocated and defended sound 
political principles, from the time when he created a reputation for 
Schouler, in " The Lowell Journal," down to the present day. There 
have been times when it required no ordinary share of pluck, nerve, 
and moral courage, to stand firm in defence of the right ; and he has 
always proved true." 

Lieut. -Gov. John Nesmith, an old "Lowell American" 
friend, wrote, — 

" Give him my thanks for his long and valuable services in the 
cause of right and justice, ever guiding public opinion the way it 
ought to go, rather than following it in the wrong, — a practice too 
common wth writers for the press." 



"WARRINGTON." 121 

William Stowe of Springfield wrote, — 

"We cill love Bill, who know him. But, as Bowles observed, he 
has never abused many of us up here, and, of course, cannot expect 
a very liberal harvest." 

Bishop Haven said, — 

"He has declined offices that would have led to wealth, that he 
might keep his pen clear for the duty laid upon it. His party has 
grown rich and powerful ; and its ablest penman still occupies the 
comparatively humble position of clerk of the Massachusetts House 
of Eepresentatives." 

Mr. F. B. Sanborn said of this birthdaj' affair, in " Tlie 
Springfield Republican," — 

" The general feeling was, that an act of justice had been done to 
one of the men faithful to a good cause through evil and good report, 
and who owed his position and influence to no accident, but to his own 
talents, and force of character. The sting of his arrows was for- 
gotten ; and the men whom he had laughed at, and those he would 
laugh at hereafter, joined in commendation of the Middlesex Dioge- 
nes, whose name in English is 'Warrington.' " 

The address, written by Mr. F. W. Bird, was as fol- 
lows : — 

William S. Eobinson. Dear Friend, — We are honored in being 
selected to represent the friends who are gathered here, and many 
others who are absent, on this fiftieth anniversary of your birth- 
day. Believe us, no mere conventional observance prompts this 
gathering. The close of half a century of your life presents a fit 
occasion, for which we have impatiently waited, for bearing testimony 
to our sense of public services, private virtues, and personal worth. 
For twenty years, or upwards, many of us have known you well. 
Ko twenty years in the history of JMassachusetts and the country 
have been so full of great movements, — of movements esiDCcially 
testing the courage, the sagacity, the fidelity, of men so largely and 
intimately connected with public affairs as you have been. We are 
inspired Avith new faith in the permanency and beneficence of repub- 
lican institutions, when we remember that you derived no aid for the 
duties you have done from academical studies or professional training. 
Xone the less assiduously, — all the more vigorously, perhaps, — you 
have drawn so deep from the wells of English undefiled, that you 
may well congratulate yourself that you wasted no precious years in 
the toilsome drudgery which precedes even the shallowest draught at 
the ancient classic fountains. 



122 MEMOIR OF 

Our children, who will enter the land of promise after these forty 
years of painful wanderings through the wilderness, can never know 
the price Iheir fathers paid for this freedom. You know how these 
perilous times have tried men's souls. We remember, if you do not, 
how bravely you have borne your part in this great contest. We 
remember, — for most of us were with you " out in the '48;" though 
some of us clung for a few years longer to the hope that salvation 
might come to our political Israel out of the Nazareth of the old 
parties, just as we were behind the farther-seeing pioneers of previ- 
ous years, — we remember with Avhat enthusiam you joined the de- 
voted band who led a forlorn hope in Massachusetts in protesting 
against the subserviency of both the great political parties to slavery, 
and what yeoman service you rendered in the three-years' battle 
which rescued the old Bay State from her ignoble alliance with the 
slave-power. You bearded the lion in his very den; for, if there was 
one spot in Massachusetts where it was more dangerous than in any 
other to follow independent convictions, that spot was Lowell. 
Wealth, political preferment, social position, personal comfort, — all 
that, speaking after the maimer of men, enters into the aspirations 
of a young man, — were at the disposal of the controlling dynasties: 
but you turned your back upon them all, though sorely needing them 
all; choosing rather to suffer afflictions with the votaries of equal 
rights, than to enjoy the pleasures of popular favor for a season. 

We remember, when the tornado of 1854 swept over the State, 
how bravely you breasted the storm, cheerfully accepting banishment 
from public affairs, rather than to accede to the denial of equal rights 
before the law on account of race or creed; and, during the six years 
that succeeded that morbid paroxysm, — the sequelcc of the disease, 
more obstinate, and often more fatal, than the disease itself, — you 
kept the faith : and, when the re-action came ; when the people of 
Massachusetts, with awakened traditions, convictions, and instincts, 
placed Andrew in the chair of Winthrop and Hancock, — we remem- 
ber how large the share you bore in shaping the policy which gave to 
Massachusetts the five proiulest years of her history. 

i/cec ol'uii meniinisse juvabit. These things, and more than these, 
we shall always love to remember; and it is because we remember 
them that we are here to-night, in imperfect token of our apprecia- 
tion of your services to the rights of man. Few men in the country, 
no man in Massachusetts, held so prominent a position as a journal- 
ist as you have held for the last twenty years. During that time 
you have discussed, freely and fearlessly, all the great public ques- 
tions, more especially those of a political, social, and moral character, 
which have agitated the community; and no man has written so 
little which his friends would Avlsh to blot, or taken so few positions 
from which he has been compelled to retreat. Your criticisms of 



"WARRINGTON-." 123 

measures and men, though unsparing, have been so free from 
prejudice or ill-will, — so manifestly prompted by honest convic- 
tion, and so almost uniformly found, sooner or later, to be in 
accordance with the soundest public policy, — that you have never 
forfeited the confidence and esteem of any of the subjects of your 
criticisms whose confidence and esteem are worth preserving. Per- 
haps tlie rarest but most valuable quality of a public journalist is the 
criticism of the public acts of our political friends. It is easy and 
safe to attack our enemies : it is a brave but most salutary test of 
fidelity and courage to rebuke our friends. To this, the highest duty 
of i^ersonal and iDolitical friendship, you have ever been faithful ; and 
yet there is no man who more fully possesses the confidence and 
regard of the public men whom Massachusetts deliglits to honor. 
Evei- just to the earnest and true, your fertile and caustic pen has 
been the terror of pretenders, political, literary, or social, and of the 
false-hearted, high or low, till you have earned the right to boast, — 

" Yes, I am proud, I niiist be proud, to see 
Men not afraid of God .afraid of me." 

Without reflections of unmixed sadness, and without forebodings, 
you enter the period of lengthening shadows. The struggles of 
early years are followed by the comfortable rewards of industry and 
frugality. Domestic life, so dear to your nature, offers to you all that 
is expressed by that precious word " home." The acquisitions of 
many years of varied studies, to be enriched through the njaturer life 
upon which you are just entering, will ripen into a rich harvest for 
memory and meditation in the tranquil evening which follows a tran- 
quil life. And now, old and dear friend, in behalf of your friends 
here, and of many others who have expressed regret that they are 
unavoidably absent, we present to you these inadequate tokens of our 
regard. I should be glad, if it were proper, to give the names of every 
friend who is represented in these gifts. Gifts! — payments, rather, 
of debts we all owe, which this testimonial feebly discharges. I shall 
be pardoned, however, for saying that this fund was made up of 
purely free-will offerings ; and every contribution was prompted by 
sincere personal regards and cordial i^olitical sympathies. 

Salte et vale! Hail and farewell ! Farewell to the past, for- 
getting its rude experiences, and cherishing only its rich and blessed 
memories. Hail to the great hereafter, with its duties and responsi- 
bilities, its trials and triumphs. We have no misgivings as to your 
future. The great cause to which your life has been devoted will 
make ever new demands upon its votaries, and will continue to 
reward faithful service with its choicest benedictions. We pray that 
a kind Pi'ovidence may add, for you and yours, all the needed com- 
forts of worldly life ; that as you draw nearer the shores of that broad 



124 MEMOIR OF 

ocean we must sail so soon, with an unfaltering trust in the good 
Father of all, you may commit the keeping of your souls in well- 
duiug to him, as unto a faithful Creator; and 

" When, soon or late, you reach that coast, 
O'er life's rough ocean driven, 
Oh ! may you meet, no wanderer lost, 
A family in heaven." 

Fkaxcis W. Bird. 

RoBKRT K. Potter. 

Edward W. Kinsley. 
Boston, Dec. 7, 1868. 

To these complimentary opinions Mr. Robinson responded, 
expressing surprise at the exuberant generosit}' of his friends, 
and protesting that the importance of his services, and his 
merits as a journalist, had been exaggerated. lie said that 
he himself could have written a more truthful account of 
what he had done than the gentleman before him. As for 
sacrifice, he was not conscious of having made any worth 
mentioning. He was certain that in the task of critic, which 
he had performed for some 3'ears, there were man}' compen- 
sations ; and that he thought, on the whole, he had enjoyed 
it at least as much as those he had criticised. He supposed, 
however, that exaggeration was pardonable among radicals ; 
and he was sincerely grateful for the friendship which would 
permit sucli kind things to be said of him. He thanked his 
friends, present and absent, Avho had shown their good-will 
in the testimonial, which he was proud to receive.' lie loved 
his friends, and, like the ancient philosopher, would rather 
have a real friend than a horse or a dog, yea, than all tJie 
gold of Darius. He wrote, " Beautiful is patriotism ; beau- 
tiful is a cold-blooded sense of dut}" : but, on the whole, I 
think that friendship — live, heart-to-heart loyalt}' — is quite 

1 The gifts to "Warrington," liis wife, and family, were a marble 
mantle-dock, three gold watclies, a silver watch, a thousand-dollar 
bond, and two hundred dollars in greenbacks. He was very much 
pleased at lliis demonstration on the part of liis friends; and, while the 
substantial gifts were appreciated, the love and loyalty which prompted 
them were more in his thought. 



"WARRINGTON." 125 

as beautiful, and quite as useful in this world, hard enough 
at the best." 

These were " Warrington's " times of power. It is not 
too much to sa}^ that, during the years of his clerkship, few 
men could have held high public office in Massachusetts 
without his advice or suggestion, such was the controlling 
influence of his pen. He wrote men into place and position, 
who, but for him, would never have been brought to public 
notice. He was called the •' AVarwick " of Massachusetts, 
His was the power behind the throne, — sometimes the veto- 
power, — ever exercised unselfishly for the good of the peo- 
ple. It is difficult to estimate his influence upon his time, 
or the force he brought into the political aflTairs of the day. 

Manomet is a small watering-place on the shore of Cape- 
Cod Bay, near Pl^-mouth, where, during the clerkship 3'ears, 
Mr. Robinson with his family spent his summer vacation. 
He wrote of it as follows : — 

" It is as good a place as can be found for a family refuge, where can 
be enjoyed fishing, bathing, bowUng, clam-bakes, out-of-door sports 
apd rambles, in-door music, cards, and charades, with an exceUent 
chance to witness the old-fashioned but ever new-fashioned peren- 
nial practice of courting and love-making ; where the whistle of the 
railroad-train or the clink of the canakin is not heard, but where 
the right to play whist is as unstained as the right to worship, 
which the Pilgrims found and left in the old town of Avhich Manomet 
forms a part. Daniel Webster used to sail thither from his bome in 
Marsbfield, enjoy the fishing in the deep bay, and eat the famous 
chowders made by Mr. Holmes, father of the present proprietor. If 
it had not been for his hankering after the presidency^ he mlglit have 
been living now, and fishing in peace and quiet along these shores; 
his ambition for that empty oflice having not only cost him his life,' 
but most of his early-earned honors. Research failed to gather any 
reminiscences of this great man. The skipper of the place, however, 
recalled that once Mrs. Webster came there with her famous husband, 
and, while sailing on the bay, dropped her handkerchief into the water, 
causing him (the skipper) much trouble in tacking and veering to re- 
claim it." 

Mr. F. W. Bird introduced " Warrington " at Manomet 
in the summer of 1860 ; and he, with other political friends, 
was in the habit of going there during the following years. 



126 MEMOIR OF 

Here a great deal of political planning was done. Said 
"Warrington " in 18G8,— 

" One of our choicest reminiscences of politics is the planning of 
the campaign at that place, with Adin Thayer, F. W. Bird, and one or 
two other radicals, which resulted in the nomination of Mr. Sumner 
for senator by the State Convention of 1802. This was a bold and 
somewhat risky plot, for such a thing had never been ventured on 
before, and, with Mr. Dana and the conservatives generally in well- 
known opposition, required, as we thought and still think, no little 
courage. J. Q. A. Griffin was thought a fit man for chairman of the 
committee on resolutions ; and those who remember how successfully 
he met Mr. Dana's careful tactics and shrewdly-put arguments know 
liow well the result justified the selection. The success of the scheme 
was due, however, of course, to the fact that the people, who were 
represented, were for Mr. Sumner by a large majority. The merit of 
the radicals was in knowing this fact, and determining that the popu- 
lar will should not be frustrated by adverse management, and the 
popular impulse defeated in the succeeding legislature. This suc- 
cessful movement paralyzed the ' People's Movement,' which would 
have become, under a diffei-ent policy, much more formidable. It put 
a stop to the milk-and-water system of 18G1, which had already begun 
to be mischievous ; and gave tone to the politics of the country in no 
inconsiderable degree." 

The first gun in the Butler campaign of 1871 was fired 
from Manomet. 

His practice of always si^eaking from his own identity, 
and calling people and things b}' their right names, caused 
"Warrington" to be called the most personal of writers. 
Speaking of personal and impersonal writing (in 1859), he 
said, — , 

" I call this impersonality talk all * cant.' It is cant peculiar to 
two or three New-York papers. I would like to know why the i^ress 
should be impersonal any more than the pulpit. We should think it 
odd, if, whenever we go to clun-ch, a voice should issue from behind 
the pulpit, and give us doctrine and morals, without letting us know 
from whose lips it came. We might be inveigled into listening to 
Kalloch while fondly believing that it was Father Taylor or Dr. 
Neale. He who has a reform on his hands must not shrink from 
personalities." 

Mr. Robinson never felt the least ill-will towards the per- 
sons he criticised, or looked for any ill-will towards himself 



"WARRINGTON:' 127 

in return. Of his man}' controversies with public men, that 
with his friend Bishop Haven will best illustrate this phase 
of his character. These two seldom agreed as to political 
methods ; and the prohibitory question was alwa3-s a bone 
of contention (in " Zion's Herald " and " The Republican ") 
between them. But their hottest controversy was over the 
unfortunate Richardson and MacFarland affair. Dr. Haven 
took the ground that Mrs. MacFarland, however ill treated, 
had no right to leave her husband, or marrj- another man. 
He looked only at the common Bible-view of the question, — 
namel}', "whom God hath joined;" forgetting the occasion 
when Jesus said to the woman who had had five husbands, 
" Thou sa3'est truly, the man thou livest with now is not thy 
husband." " Warrington " defended Mrs. MacFarland on 
the latter ground ; arguing from the patent fact, that man, 
and not God, had joined MacFarland and his wife together. 
Haven accused "Warrington" of being a "free-lover," and 
of not keeping the seventh commandment ; to which he re- 
torted by calling the bishop an "assassin." The public, 
doubtless, supposed these two writers to be at swords'-points ; 
but, instead, Dr. Haven, who lived in the same town, would 
almost every evening show his sonc}' face at Mr. Robinson's 
door ; and the two warm friends would fight their battles over 
again, laugh at what they had written, and congratulate each 
other on the tactics used in this pen warfare. One evening, 
one of Mr. Robinson's children refused his proffered hand on 
entering; saying, "You called m}' father a free-lover." — 
"He called me an assassin," retorted Dr. Haven, bo}'- 
fashion. " Well," was the repl}', " I had rather be called an 
assassin than a free-lover." — " So had I," quoth the bishop. 
Upon that they shook hands. Then said Dr. Haven to Mr. 
and Mrs. Robinson, " I am glad to say that free-love (as a 
practice) does not get into your house ; for you are almost 
as completely one as if orthodox in all other respects." 

"Warrington" had a humble opinion of his labors. He 
would not allow that any thing he did was more than ' ' mid- 
dling good." When asked why he did not publish a volume 



128 MEMOIR OF 

of his letters, he replied, " The3- are not worth it: there are 
too many books already." He did not take credit for muclji 
of his ollicial writing, particulail^- that which he did as sec- 
retary of the State Convention. Ycxy few knew by Avhose 
hand those stirring addresses and appeals to the people 
dnring war-time were written. Of his domestic life during 
the years he held the clerkship, the annals are uneventful. 
Happ3' in being free from pecuniary care, with the columns 
of an influential paper open to him wherein to sa}- what he 
chose, his opinions treated with that respect which position 
and office give, and his countr}' at last on the right road 
towards its high destiny, he was satisfied. He never men- 
tioned his early trials, but to laugh at them as " part of the 
discipline." His prosperity' never changed the simplicitj- 
and modest}' of his surroundings. When advised to malie 
some addition to his furniture, or some change in his house, 
such as his neighbors thought indispensable, he said, '■'-We 
should look well buying such things as those." He made a 
similar answer to his children, when urged by them to keep 
a horse for their use, and for his own health and recreation. 
He would never bu}^ or own a dress-coat, even to attend the 
governor's levees; saying, "It is beneath an American citi- 
zen to take thought of dress-coats." He continued a free and 
natural man in all respects. He ate sparing!}', and had no 
choice as to dishes. He seldom drank wine or spirits of any 
kind ; never used tobacco in an}" form ; and, as he pleasantl}' 
said, had none of the small vices. He believed in luck, and 
called himself a luck}' man. He was also fond of repeating 
what a happy man he had always been ; differing in this from 
most people, who are happy without knowing it, and who 
" never are, but always to be, blessed." His friend Bishop 
Haven thus described his personal appearance in 18G5-G7 : — 

" A lymphatic, sliiit-iii man, smiling only round the mouth, which 
is carefully covered with liair to hide the smile; short, thick-sot, with 
his head not unlike that of Irving's great Dutch governor, wliich 
Nature made so perfect, that she could find no neck to match, and so 
set it directly on his shoulders; high forehead; sliglitly bald; thin 
hair; ruddy of face; and the keenest political writer in America, and 
Ihc best political writer since * Junius.' " 



"WARRINGTON." 129 

His writings gave the impression that he was crabbed and 
hard, and new acquaintances were often surprised to find 
him so genial. Some one once called him a cynic ; and he 
wrote, in repl}', — 

" I belong to no philosophic sect, unless the enforced practice of 
eating beans at the State House makes me a Pythagorean : so I i^ro- 
test I am wronged when I am styled a cynic. I might as well be 
called a hypothenuse, for any information or characterization the word 
conveys." 

In 1866 he had bought the house in Maiden in which he 
had lived for several j^ears, and in which he died. He had 
been averse to bu3ing a house, preferring to be unencum- 
bered ; so that, when he wanted to move, he could do so, 
without being, like the turtle, obliged to carry his shell on 
his back. But his landlord, Mr. Henr}- Amerige, had so 
urged him to buy, offering the house at a lower price than he 
had been offered b}' other parties, that he finallj^ consented 
to become a landholder ; and the price (thirt3'-six hundred 
dollars) was paid in a year or two. In the last 3'ears of 
his life, he often expressed his gratitude towards this kind 
friend, who, although not one to whom he had ever done a 
favor, had 3'et, with such solicitude, urged him to provide 
a home for himself and famil3'. 

Of the famil3' home bought b3' the earnings of such a man 
as "Warrington" it can well be said, with Ruskin, "that 
our sons, and our sons' sons for ages to come, might still 
lead their children reverentl3' to the doors out of which ho 
had been carried to the grave, saying, ' Look, this was his 
house ; this was his chamber ! ' " 



130 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 

BUTLER AND BUTLERISM. 

[1870-1874.] 

" For an oracle says, that, ■when a man of brass or iron guards the State, it will then 
be destroyed." — Plato's Hepublic, Book UI. 

""Warrington" in 1870 liad attained to a position of 
comparative pecuniary ease. lie had a home of his own ; 
his children were being educated ; his writings were appreci- 
ated ; and he was blessed according to his desire "with 
honor, love, obedience, troops of friends." It was indeed 
time for a reverse. In 1869 the Republican party was in a 
good-bo3' condition : having learned its lessons, and recited 
them well, it was enjoying its rewards of merit. Discipline 
and order were maintained ; but a new element was soon to 
appear, bringing confusion and demoralization into its ranks. 
This new element in Massachusetts was Major-Gen. Benja- 
min F. Butler. Pres. Grant had fulfilled his promise of a 
political peace ; and there was no question in Massachusetts 
politics of more moment than the division of towns, the 
introduction of water, and the claims of candidates for office. 
" Their tameness is shocking to me," said " "Warrington" 
of the politics of 18C9. In 1870 the Butler fight really 
began. "Wendell Phillips hi^d been nominated for governor 
by both the Prohibitory and the Labor Reform parties. In 
one of his first campaign lectures (at Music Hall, Boston, 
Oct. 18) he made an unprovoked and bitter attack on the 
Republican party, on " Warrington," F. AV. Bird, and other 
leading men who were its representatives. " Warrington " 



" WARRING TON. " 131 

sat in one of the front-seats of the lecture-room, listening to 
this attack. Before the lecture closed, he left the hall, went 
immediately home, did not sleep upon it, but took his pen to 
free his mind. In the next daj-'s "Journal" appeared his 
first paper on " Wendell Phillips at Music Hall, — a Re- 
view," which was followed by four other papers on the same 
subject. He opposed the movement to make Mr. Phillips 
governor, because he thought it inimical to the interests of 
the parties who had nominated him, as well as to those of 
the Republican party. In his last speech before election, Mr. 
Phillips said, " Do 3-our dutj^ to-morrow, and in another 
year some of us will get out of the wa}', and give you an 
opportunit}' to elect a real governor." 

This " real governor," so confident!}' predicted to come in 
1871, w^as Butler, for whom Mr. Phillips was only a breaker- 
up of the ground. "The Atlantic Monthl}- " for Decem- 
ber, 1871, contains an article by " "Warrington," on "■ Gen. 
Butler's Campaign in Massachusetts," which gives an ex- 
haustive account of that gentleman's raid upon the governor- 
ship. The limits of this biography forbid a detailed history 
of that contest, which can be better gathered from the above- 
mentioned article, or from the selections in the succeeding 
pages. I have been advised b}' well-meaning friends to 
say as little as possible about the Butler campaign. This 
campaign — a light against the one-man power that he 
thought so dangerous to our sj'stem of government — was 
the crowning glor}' of " \Yarrington's " political life. I 
know full well what the "alarm, the struggle, the relief," 
cost him and those he has left behind ; and it is m^^ duty to 
say what I think to be right and just to him. I shall " noth- 
ing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." "It was a 
fair fight," said he to the last day of his life. "Whether the 
stab in the back, given after the fight ended, was fair play 
or not, I shall leave those to decide who are more familiar 
than I am with the tactics of political warfare. 

In June, 1871, Mr. Robinson received the following letter 
from Butler. The note at the bottom is just as it was 
written by him on the original letter. 



132 MEMOIR OF 

12, Pembertox Square. 
My dear Robhtsox, — May I trouble you for a favor? I desire 
to obtain all the reports, documents, immphlets, or other materials, 
exhibiting the condition of the punitive and reformatory institutions 
of the State for two years past. I also desire to get any reports of 
reformatory societies on the same subject. I would also like all I can 
have upon "compulsory education," including our truant system 
(official or xinofficial). I am asking an immensity from you, but will 
reciprocate with the whole document-rooms of Congress, if you 
wish. May I trouble you so far as to send them? or, if you will 
notify me when the package is to be had, I will send my messenger 
for it. I am yours sincerely, 

Bexj. F. Butleb. 
William S. Koblssoj.', Esq. 

He made a lying attack on me in his first speech. — W. S. R. 

At great inconvenience he attended to the matter per- 
sonall}', collected the desired documents from the various 
State departments, and forwarded them to Butler's head- 
quarters in Pemberton Square, Boston. Butler's first cam-, 
paign speech, containing the " Ijing attack" above men- 
tioned, was delivered while "Warrington" was at his 
summer resting-place, Manomet, and was replied to from 
that place. After his return, he wrote a series of letters 
for " The Boston Journal," called " Gen. Butler Kcviewed." 
Long articles on the same subject were also written b}- him 
in other leading newspapers. The " AYarrington " letters 
in "The Republican" took up the strain; and, as fast as 
the "claimant" (as E. R. Hoar called him) spoke, " "War- 
rington " replied. His pen galloped da}' and night, — some 
nights he only allowed himself five hours' sleep, — Avorking 
steadily to keep the State from tlie hands of a man who rep- 
resented the most vicious i)rinciple in our affairs, — the ten- 
dency towards personal government. His little son said, 
" "What makes j'ou sit up so late, father? Why don't 3-ou go 
to bed?" — "Oh! I'm writing a letter, my boy." — " For 
the papers?" — "Yes." — "Well, who are you pitching 
into now, father? " Bishop Haven, though on Butler's side, 
refrained from his pleasant habit of dropping in during the 
evenings, so as not to interrupt this work. One evening, as 



' ' WAERING TON. " 133 

he passed the house with a friend, he said, "There in that 
little house burns the onl}- light in this State that Ben Butler 
is afraid of." A few leading Republicans joined in this 
opposition to Butler's claims. Our senators, Sumner and 
Wilson, issued a manifesto against him, to the effect that 
"they deep 1}' regret and deplore the extraordinary canvass 
which Gen. Butler has precipitated upon the Commonwealth, 
and especiall}- the attacks which he has volunteered against 
the existing State government and the Republican part}- of 
Massachusetts ; and that, in their opinion, his name as 

GOVERXOIl WOULD BE HOSTILE TO THE BEST INTERESTS OF 

THE Commonwealth and the Republican party." 

This course was urged upon them b}' "Warrington" and 
some of the leading journalists. D. A. Goddard of "The 
Advertiser," W. W. Clapp of "The Journal," and Samuel 
Bowles of "The Republican," declared that their papers 
would not support Butler as a candidate for governor. Mr. 
Sumner wrote the manifesto, showed it to Mr. F. B. San- 
born and to " AVarrington " before it was printed, and car- 
ried it himself to the "Journal" office to be set up. As 
soon as the card appeared, Butler hurried down to the Cool- 
idge House to remonstrate with Mr. Sumner, but could get 
no satisfaction. He went on with his campaign, making 
speeches every night, and in every speech attacks upon 
" Warrington," whom he with justice considered the leader 
of the opposition. The onl}' ground he had to stand upon 
for these attacks was Mr. Robinson's fat salary (three thou- 
sand dollars a 3'ear), and the fact that he employed his 
daughter as his assistant.^ All his researches into official 
documents had failed to discover any little peculation or 
other charge to bring against the writer who ever^' da}' came 
out in the papers against him. By long acquaintance with 
Butler, "Warrington" knew exactly how to rate him, and 
where to attack him. When the prominent men of the party 



1 This was, probably, the first instance in this country of a lady hold- 
ing an oflicial position in a legislative body. 



134 MEMOIR OF 

drew back, he stepped to the front, and drew upon his victim 
ever}' arrow of his wit ; so that he fell an easy prey to thp 
rank and file when the}- came up, led b}' E. R. Hoar, Senator 
Dawes, and others. The opposition to Butler's raid (which 
was kept up ever}' night until after the 20th of September) 
met with very little opposition, except from the newspapers, 
until within a short time before the Worcester Convention. 
His mone}' ran like water, and found its wa}- into Maiden, 
where it hired a band of music, and drummed up recruits to 
the Butler Republican caucus to nominate delegates for the 
convention. "Warrington," who heretofore had invariably 
been delegated, was " forgotten to be remembered," On 
learning of this omission, he smilingly said, — 

" Thej' reckon ill who leave me out." 

The Bird Club, that impromptu organization, rallied against 
Butler. Said ' ' Warrington , " — 

" This club is composed of conservatives as well as radicals. But 
Butler knew that a great majority of the men who sat at its table 
held him at arm's-length, distrusted him; some of them despised 
and hated him. They can afford to be known as leading men in the 
army of defence which has routed Butler, and saved the State from 
a disgrace which would have lasted for a generation." 

Butler was defeated in the convention by a hundred and 
sevent3--nine votes. The feeling of relief in Eastern Massa- 
chusetts was ver}' great ; and no happier set of men than the 
Republicans had been seen for a long time : ten to one 
were rejoicing. " Warrington " received congratulations on 
all sides, and was profusely thanked by those who knew 
" that he was the first to take hold of Ben, and the last to 
let go." He had congratulatory letters, telling him tliat he 
had never done such splendid work before, or written so 
strongly, so avcU, and so effectivel}'. Ilis friend Gilbert 
Haven told him that at last he had "struck twelve." The 
newspaper folk were delighted at the defeat of this man who 
had defied them and despised the voice of "the papers." 
The faint-hearted ones, who had feared the influence of the 



''WARRINGTON." 135 

candidate's glib tongue over the people, were obliged to own 
that the pen was the mightier power. "Tools!" saj-s Car- 
lyle, " tools ! Hast thou not a Brain, furnished, furnishable 
with some glimmerings of Light ; and three fingers to hold a 
pen withal? Never since Aaron's Rod went out of practice, 
or even before it, was there such a wonder-working tool : 
greater than all recorded miracles have been performed by 
Pens." 

In April, 1872, a new departure in politics was proposed ; 
and a call was issued for a convention of liberals of all par- 
ties to nominate a candidate for President. In spite of the 
remonstrance of his friends, who told him that it would be 
at the certain risk of loss of office, "Warrington" signed 
the call for this convention. Mr. G. H. Monroe said of this 
act of his friend, that he ' ' never knew of any one so abso- 
lutely' fearless, and regardless of himself and his interests, 
as to sign such a call at this time." Of his opinion of the 
movement, he wrote, — 

" I am satisfied that it is necessary, even at the risk of hazarding a 
Democratic triumph, to call, ' Halt ! ' I know that great numbers of 
Eepublicans think so. I know the young men ought to be led to 
better things than this personal Grant party propose to give them. 
. . . There should be a protest against this inevitable badness, and an 
attempt to reform it. The question of a new party was. the same in 
1848 and 1844. The war is over : we must get back to peace fashions ; 
martial law must give way to civil government and the maxims of 
peace ; and, if the full consummation is to be delayed till 1876, we 
ought to make a beginning now, so that it may not be postponed till 
1880 or indefinitely." 

When the Cincinnati Convention nominated Horace Gree- 
le}', "Warrington" was disappointed. He had no faith in 
Mr. Greeley's powers to establish a party of reform, or 
found one that would last a reasonable length of time ; and 
said, — 

" The nomination of Greeley throws the politics of the country into 
confusion. I don' t believe the people of this country are ready to go 
through a presidential election for the purpose of confusion. So far 
as personal duty is concerned, every man can at once determine for 



136 MEMOIR OF 

himself. I have all along thought Trumbull and Johu Q. Adams 
•would have been the strongest ticket for Cincinnati. It seems to 
me a mistake to suppose both candidates should be Kcpublicans. 
When Frank Blair appeared on the Cincinnati platform and dictated 
its nomination, or (take another theory, not contradictory, but col- 
lateral) when Fenton dictated a presidential candidate for the pur- 
pose of controlling the politics of New York against a senatorial 
rival, the reform movement was raided upon and captured. No 
blame to it. It was in its idea an honest and wholesome movement. 
The shij') engaged in the honestest trade is as likely as any other to be 
taken by a pirate. The Cincinnati Convention was so taken. It was 
a sign that that way out of politics had, for that time, failed. It was 
a sign that the personal system had been able, not only to control the 
administration and all local and general politics, but to detail men 
enough to break up, for the time being, the attempt at reform. The 
movement was, for that time, at an end." 

Pres. Grant was re-elected b}' a large majority. Man}' pro- 
gressive Republicans who did not accept Mr. Greele^^'s nomi- 
nation voted for Grant as the less of two evils, IMr. Robinson 
among them ; though be afterwards expressed regret at liav- 
ing done so. Horace Greeley died shortly after the November 
election : " Gone in peace, after so man^- struggles ; in honor, 
after so much obloquy." ^ "Warrington " was elected for the 
eleventh time b}' the legislature of 1872 ; only twenty-four 
dissenting votes being cast, — not so much opposition as he 
had expected. He had taken very little rest after the severe 
mental strain of the Butler fight ; and, during this session 
(prolonged on account of the great Boston fire-), his health, 
never robust, began to show symptoms of decline. After 
the legislature adjourned, he made a short visit in Dubuque, 
lo., whence the letter was written to Mr. Sumner on " The 
Political Situation of 1872." Having signed the call for the 
Cincinnati Convention, he felt himself a little out with his 
party, though he had voted for the best of its candidates. 
He expressed the thought that he did not expect to have 

1 New- York Times. 

2 There hud been an extra session on this account in November and 
December of 1872. It was at this extra session that the resohitiou of 
censure was passed upon Charles Sumner. 



"WAREINGTON." 137 

much to do with politics this year, except in the way of criti- 
cism and newspaper-writing. 

Butler did not repeat his raid upon the governorship in 1872, 
being busy with weightier matters, one of which was the defeat 
of "Warrington" as clerk of the House of Representatives. 
By his frank criticism of Butler's public career, "Warring- 
ton" had incurred that person's hostility, who looked upon 
him with justice as the head and front of the opposition to 
his attempts upon the governorship in 1871. Being the only 
leading man of his opposers who could be reached with im- 
punity, he determined to make an example of him. Ru- 
mors of secret machinations to accomplish his defeat reached 
Mr. Robinson, and he was advised to take measures to rally 
bis friends for his support. He refused, saying, " If Butler's 
gang can defeat me, let them do so. I will not stoop to mix 
in their dirty work for twenty clerkships."^ Few of his 
friends were aware of this secret league formed against him ; 
and, when warned, they could not believe that Butler had 
the power to accomplish his designs.^ 

The legislature of 1873 met ; and, when the balloting for 
clerk was over, Mr. Robinson stood up at his desk, as usual, 
to hear the result. The vote was announced b}' the speaker 
(Gl: for Robinson, 171 for Taylor), and was received (said a 
reporter) "by a loud clapping of hands on the part of the 
House." It took his friends completely by surprise, and 
threw some of the officers of the House off their guard. 
The sergeant-at-arms. Major Morissc}', forgot his duty for 
a moment ; and Mr. Robinson recalled him to himself, and 
set him right. 

This undeserved affront was keenly felt, coming as it did 
when his health was impaired by years of hard service in 

1 A day or two previous to the opening of the legislature, lie was 
met by a pretended friend, who volunteered the assurance that there 
was no movement against him. At the same time, this person was 
secretly working to accomplish his defeat. 

2 In the selection called Warrington on his Defeat -will be found 
bis own view of the subject, and an account of the political reasons 
and combinations which made this culmination possible. 



138 MEMOIR OF 

building up and maintaining the vor}' party which so ill 
treated him. lie had found out, to his cost, that what he had 
said of the Republican party in 18G1 was just as true in 
1873 : " As a part}', we are not famous for standing by our 
friends. The moment an interested political opposition 
raises a clamor against any of our leading men, we acquiesce 
for the sake of peace and harmony." This legislature was 
also the one that refused to rescind the resolutions i)asscd 
at the extra session of 1872, censuring Charles Sumner. 
Among the members who voted and worked against " War- 
rington" were several who have since fallen under the 
censure of the community ; in fact, broken the laws of the 
Commonwealth.^ Speaking of his opposers in 1875, he said, 
" I have no malice towards them ; but I do know that I kept 
Butler from their throats, or helped to do it, in 1871-72 ; 
while every one of the State-house men (except F. M. Stone) 
sneaked out of the contest, or was at least verj' careful not 
to go into it very openly ; and, when fight was made on me, 
not a hand or voice did I get, so far as I know. Of course, 
I do not include the under-clerks and subordinates, some of 
whom were friendly' enough ; though I never asked an}- thing 
of them." 

Through an " under-clerk," a friend of Mr. Robinson, I 
am able to corroborate what he himself told me. This 
gentleman said, " After his defeat, man}' of his State-house 
friends hardl}' dared take him by the hand, or be seen talking 
with him, they were so afraid of having their own offices 
taken awa}', as the ' clerk's ' had been. One of the clei'ks 
who had defended him was threatened, that, if he were not 
careful what he said, his head would be taken off as Robin- 

1 In a letter written in 1875, Mr. Robinson said, "Bardwell of 
Deerlield turns out to be a thief: be was one of my cliief opponents in 
187;>. Edwards of Watcrtown, another, is under le;;islative censure for 
grabViing trial-justice-fees, or something of that sort. Both distin- 
guisheil tliemselves also by speeches against Snmncr. Best of Stone- 
ham, another thief, was one of the military swashbucklers. Newton 
Morse, a defaulter and gambler, and E. D. Winslow, were of this clique. 
They are all tarred with the same stick." 



''WARRINGTON." 139 

son's had been." ^ I need not ask the reader to consider 
what it was to a man of Mr. Eobinson's sensitive and con- 
fiding nature to go day after da}' to the State House, where 
he hatl been an honored and welcome occupant, and be met 
b}' sucli coohiess on the part of his old associates. The 
" cold-shoulderism " of his part}', and the defection of this 
portion of his friends, was filr worse to him than the loss 
of office. His real friends were ver}' much gricA'ed at his 
defeat, and expressed their sj-mpathy with him. Mr. Sumner 
wrote at this time the following letter : — 

WASHrxGTOX, March 8, 1873. 

My dear " Wareington," — Others may have divined my feel- 
ings; but I have never uttered a word, or hint even, on the action of 
the legislature. I am sure that the time will come when that measure 
now condemned will be hailed with honor. An acute politician has 
recently congratulated me upon it as the strongest move possible. I 
introduced it because it was right. Ever yours, 

Charles Sumner. 

P. S. — Let me convey, though tardily, my regret that you, too, 
have fallen under legislative displeasure. 

Henry Wilson wrote as follows : — 

" I am surprised and grieved at your defeat. I had hoped and 
expected you would hold the clerkship of the House as long as you 
desired to do so. What do you intend to do ? How are you situated ? 
Can I aid you ? If so, how ? Let me hear from you soon. If I can in 
any way aid j^ou, I will do so with all my heart. You and I have not 
thought alike always ; but I have the deepest regard for you. As old 
friends are falling around me, those that remain grow nearer and 
dearer. If you will write me how you are situated, and what plans 
you have, it may be in my power to aid you ; and, if so, you can com- 
mand me." 

He did not " whine, put finger in the eye, and sob," but, 
to all outward appearances, bore his defeat manfull}-. Only 
a few knew how deepl}' he was hurt. At home he was like 
one dazed and in a deep study : he could hardly be aroused to 

1 He was pursued by insulting letters, some of them in Ku-Klux 
Latin, after the style of those sent to Mr. Sumner from the South. 
Thougli lie was not, as was Mr. Sumner, threatened with assassination, 
his beheading was the principal theme of these epistles. 



140 MEMOIR OF 

take an interest iu surrounding things. lie fell sick at last, 
— not with any bodily- disease, but with a mental sickness, — 
and went to bed, as he said, " to think it out ; for I have been 
on a long cruise, and must la}' up for repairs." In a few 
weeks he rallied, and, after eleven j'ears of freedom from 
pecuniary anxiet}', resumed his long-unused occupation, — 
looking for "jobs of work." * 

He tliought of attempting something as a parliamentary 
law3-cr, and issued cards announcing the fact. The result 
was, that, though he answered man}' letters asking his 
opinion on mooted questions of parliamentary proceedings, 
he never asked a fee, nor, with a single exception, ever re- 
ceived one. He had no connection with, nor monc^'-interest 
in, an}' newspaper, apart from the " "Warrington " letters. 
He was no longer in close affiliation with the party for which 
he had sacrificed so much, since he had, as early as 1872, 
expressed his firm belief in the coming disintegration of that 
bod}' as a party organization. He was too old and worn out 
in the service to take up common newspaper-work again. 
He was not one to insist upon his claims to be provided 
for, and no one thought of offering a sinecure to such a 
fierce radical politician as " "Warrington." Perhaps it was 
not possible to provide for him in this way, even if he had 
desired it ; since Butler guarded the State, and, by his influ- 
ence at "Washington, held the keys of office : senators were 
elected, postmasters appointed, navy-yard and other offices 
filled, at his beck. Mr. Robinson Avas very much depressed 
during the winter from the lack of congenial employment : 
he missed the busy routine to which he had been accustomed. 
Coming down from the State House one day, he went into 
"The Boston Journal" office, where sat his friend Mr. 
Clapp, the editor. " He looked blue enough," said Mr. 
Clapp : " but I cheered him up, and told him not to worry 
about his bread and butter ; that he might have a seat at a 
table in the oflflce, and Avrite as much or as little as he chose ; 
and, though I would not agree to print every thing he wrote, 
I would pay him thirty dollars a week. He brightened at 



"WARRINGTON:" 141 

this, and said, ' On those terms I'll sit there.' " He wrote 
for "The Journal" until "June, when his health failed so 
fast, that he was obliged to go to Manomet for rest and 
recuperation. He returned home in Jul}", and resumed his 
pen for the purpose of writing a pamphlet on " The Salary 
Grab." This proceeding on the part of members of Con- 
gress to obtain back-pa}', and increase of salary, was con- 
demned by " AVarrington " from the first; and he lost no 
opportunity to denounce and bring to light the chief offend- 
ers.^ Thinking that the people ought to know the facts con- 
cerning this enormous swindle of the public money, he wrote 
" The Salary Grab," and published it mostly at his own 
expense.^ The Preface, which follows, will give some idea 
of its contents : — 

IMaldex, Mass, August, 1S70. 

This book contains an accurate history of the great congressional 
theft of a million dollars (more or less) from the treasury of the 
United States and the pockets of the people, known as " The Salary 
Grab." I mean its public history, as it is coiatainediu "The Con- 
gressional Globe " and other oSScial documents, and not its private 
history, which, being unknown or conjectural (except to the parties 
concerned in the affair, or close observers of it upon the spot), I have 
not deemed it worth while to inulertake to search out and relate. 
This account is authentic, if "The Globe" is authentic; and a full 
examination of its statements, a full analysis of its inferences, is 
hereby invited from all persons implicated in the offence, their abet- 
tors, or their apologists. 

I have avoided as well as I could all doubtful or disputed ques- 



1 At the Eepiiblican Convention of 187^ (or the Hamilton-hall meet- 
ing), he tried in vain to get a certain portion of the leaders to pass a reso- 
lution squarely condemning the whole grab. It was as follows: — 

Ilesolvcd, That the recent Act of Congress, by which the members took from the 
treasury over a million dollars, thereby increasing the public burdens and the tax- 
ation of the business-men and the working-classes wantonly and unnecessarily, 
for the purpose of increasing their own pay, while their exijenses liad not been 
increased, — accompanied as it was by a clause putting into their own pockets ten 
thousand dollars each for work already done under a law well understood when 
they were elected, — is an act which merits the condemnation of the people through- 
out the counti-j' ; and that we unite with the Ilepublicans of every State, who have, 
hi their conventions, with unanimity expressed their disapprobation of the same. 

2 Pnblished by Lee & Shepard, Boston. 



142 MEMOIR OF 

tions oil which a possible defence coukl be raised ; because my pur- 
pose has bceu to hold up to public condemnation the proved <,uUly 
persons, and not to mix up with them persons whose guilt is a matter 
of inference on account of the interest they had in the success of the 
theft. In accordance with this plan, therefore, attention has been 
paid, first of all, to B. F. ButUr, who, as the record shows, was the 
leading spirit in the business from first to last; who reported the plan 
from his own committee; who moved to attach it to the Appropria- 
tion Bill ; who was foremost in rallying its friends to its support; wlio 
was depended on in the delicate and difScult tactics of getting the 
bill into the Conference Committee; and who, as a member of that 
committee, i^ut it through there. Ills prominence is Icnown and 
acknowledged by the name familiarly given to the grab in debate, — 
" The Butler Amendment.^' Attention has next been called to his 
accomplices, — Eandall, Banks, Carpenter, and others ; and, lastly 
(through the complete record of the yeas and nays), to the members 
who voted for it directly on every or on any occasion, and to the con- 
siderable number who aided it by their votes on collateral questions; 
such as suspensions of the rules, motions to adjourn at critical 
periods when the I'ogues thought an adjournment necessary, and so 
on. I have not analyzed the yeas and nays, preferring to leave that 
work to the people of the respective states and districts, who, know- 
ing the parties concerned, can best judge of motives and of possible 
extenuating circumstances. 

To expose Bullcr Avould be a sufficient reason for wi'iting and 
printing this treatise. He seeks to become governor of Massacliu- 
setts, — a State hitherto respectable, and, up to at least Ids appear- 
ance in its politics, renowned in the history of the country. If the 
people want him, they will have him; but, if tliey want him, I, for 
one, am desirous that they should know what they are likely to get. 
The question is not, whether even he might not, if sufficiently 
tempted, do creditable things ; whether even he, the chief engineer 
of a most discreditable public burglary, might not be provoked into 
reforming here and there an abuse: but the question is, whether 
there is any probabilily of this sort to compensate for the widespread 
public scandal to be incurred by the Commonwealth in electing such 
a man, and the risk of a permanent and incurable rottenness in all 
departments of the State. In addition to this reason is a desire to do 
something to aid the friends of good government in tlie other States, 
who are now trying to rescue the politics of the country at large from 
the demoralization, financial and governmental, which has followed 
in the train of the civil war. To the good-will of those who are 
engaged in this enterprise I respectfully commend this history, and 
subscribe myself their co-operative friend, Waeri>'Gton. 



"WARRINGTON:" 143 

Butler had renewed his attempt on the governorship in 
1873 at least a month earlier than in 1871. The organiza- 
tion against him in 1871 was delayed till a very late day 
(being an informal one two or three weeks previous to the 
convention) ; thus giving the public very little chance to 
know what measures were to be taken. In 1873, on the 
contrary, the opposition to him was as open as it was possi- 
ble to make it. A meeting was held at Hamilton Hall in 
Boston, July 26, attended by about a hundred and twenty 
leading Republicans, who met together to protest against 
the "claimant," and devise means for his defeat. "War- 
rington" wrote the "Address to the People of the State," 
issued from that meeting. He returned to Manomet to stay 
during August and a part of September, but did not receive 
the usual benefit from his summer vacation. At the solicita- 
tion of a member of the Republican State Committee, who 
came to see him and urged the exigencies of the campaign, 
he came home, and Avcnt into harness again, to work for 
the party which had defeated him. Again burned the " only 
light in the State Ben Butler was afraid of ; " and the cease- 
less pen was at work. Long articles were written in " The 
Boston Journal" and other newspapers ; and the "Warring- 
ton" letters did their work towards informing the western 
part of the State jipon the subject. During the campaign he 
was approached by one of Butler's flunkies, who intimated, 
that if he Avould bury the hatchet, or refrain from writing 
against the would-be governor, hostilities towards him would 
cease, and that he would be provided for. In other words, 
to use his own interpretation, "Could 3-ou not refrain from 
fighting Butlerism, and let the state go to the dogs, as the 
country is going?" The time had come again for him to 
speak "God's truth" at the right time; and Butler found 
him, as in 1871, one of his most cfi'ective opponents.^ Gen. 

1 In Ins time of health and prosperity he had said, "Write your 
heroism now, and then shut your doors, and tlnxnv away all materials 
for making confession of your weakness. By and by, Avhen sickness 
and old age come, and mind and body decay, tlie men who talk thus 



144 MEMOIR OF 

Butler was defeated by about the same majority as in 1871. 
His raid was much better organized than in that j-ear ; but 
the work of defence against him was shared more widely 
than ever before. Hamilton Hall was justified, and shown 
to have been a necessit}'. Butler was bottled for the time 
being, and "Warrington" was done with him. 

After the severe work of this campaign, Mr. Robinson's 
health seemed entirely wasted. He had no regular employ- 
ment except his Aveekl}- letters, and no abiding-place in the 
cit}-. Election was over ; the fight of the year was done. 
The lawyer could return to his brief, the merchant to his 
counting-room, the doctor to his patient ; but, for the politi- 
cal writer, the time to la}' down arms had come. He lost 
courage ; and his health became so much impaired, that his 
friends were alarmed, and insisted upon his taking a long 
rest from all writing and pecuniary auxietv. To enable him 
to do so, the}' determined to give him a substantial testimo- 
nial of their regard ; and, the silver wedding of Mr. and 
Mrs. Robinson occurring about this time (Nov. 30, 1873), 
that occasion was chosen as a fitting one for such a purpose. 
Old friends, tried and true, companions of many a well-fought 
field, brought or sent gifts, and messages of love and appre- 
ciation. Mr. F. B. Sanborn's account of this gathering is 
as follows : — 

"Messrs. F. W. Bird and Edward W. Kinsley had undertaken to 
collect and select these offerings of friendship; and the list of donors 
was headed by Slayor Pierce with one thousand dollars. Others fol- 
lowed with less and lesser sums; the number of givers araoiuiting to 
nearly a hundred, and the sum presented being more than four thou- 
sand dollars, given in such forms as thoughtful friendship and good 
taste prompted. The occasion was the silver wedding; but the motive 
for so handsome a testimonial was the knowledge of Mr. Robinson's 
most intimate friends that this pleasant anniversary found him in 
uncertain health, and unable to pursue with his accustomed vigor the 
profession of journalism, for which nature and habit have so well 

independently will send for the doctor and the minister, and die mum- 
bling the catechism. The moral is, ' Write your heroism no\v.' " The 
"by and by " of which he spoke had not come: it never came to him. 



''WARRINGTON." 145 

fitted him. It seemed proper, therefore, that those who had main- 
tained along witli hira for so many years, tlirougli good and evil 
report, and with all the vicissitudes of fortune that attend political 
warfare, the good old cause of freedom and progress, should remind 
him that a balance sjood to his account on the books of friendship, 
which might as well be transferred now as at some future time when 
it might be less useful. It was felt that he had been our soldier all 
these years, working in the trenches and fighting on the ramparts of 
journalism, more for others than for himself; that when a movement 
was to be made, or a blow struck, against some fortified post of op- 
pression or some impudent pretender to leadership, or when some 
ambush of the enemy was to be beaten up, Robinson had volunteered, 
or had been assigned to the most conspicuous service, and liad drawn 
on himself the fire of the other side, while many a more selfish man 
would have kept in the ranks, and thought first of his own interest, 
and next of his duty to tlie cause. They remembered that he was 
turned out of his clerkship last winter, less for his own opinions than 
for those of life-long friends wliom he was unwilling to desert and 
decry. This was a mean and cruel act, coming as it did at a time 
when Mr. Robinson's health was enfeebled by more than thirty years 
of hard work; and it did not, of course, increase the vigor of his 
body, or the buoyancy of his spirits. But, on the other hand, it did 
not swerve liim from his course, nor make it any easier for the con- 
triver of the salary grab to become governor of Massachusetts. Once 
more, as so often before, the pen of ' Warrington ' became the most 
effective defender of good order, and the most trenchant weapon to 
defeat a troublesome demagogue. And, in all these labors of late 
years, he has found in his own liome his best adviser and most appre- 
ciative critic. Looking bacii farther, they called to mind that there 
had scarcely been a noble enterprise, a wise and bold policy in national 
affairs, or a humane and progressive measure of state legislation or 
social agitation, which had not received timely, steady, and effective 
support from him during the last thirty years. The friend of Sum- 
ner and Wilson, of Banks and Burlingarae, of Andrew and Schouler, 
Howe and Stearns and Bird, Bullock and Claflin and Washburn, and 
the other conspicuous men who have directed affairs in Massachusetts 
for twenty years past, he had never allowed friendship to blind his 
eyes, or restrain his pen, if he saw occasion to oppose his own com- 
rades for the good of the people. Scarcely a man among the public 
characters who subscribed to liis testimonial but had at some time 
smarted under his criticism, or, at least, encountered his reproof; 
but they bore no malice any more than he did. ' Faithful are the 
wounds of a friend;' and though, as one of the subscribers said, 
'Warrington' is in the habit of falling, like the scriptural rain, 'on 
the just and on the unjust,' it is only the unjust (for the most part) 



146 MEMOIR OF 

that lay it up against him. Hence the hearty and to him quite un- 
expected warmtli of response to tlie kindly appeal made in liis behalf 
by Messrs. Bird and Kinsley. 

'•This cordiality was expressed by none in more touching terras 
than by Vice-Pres. Wilson, who, but for his being called to assume 
his high office in the Senate for the first time to-day, would have 
been with us at this festival. No longer separated from the comrades 
of many an arduous struggle by the unhappy discords of a year ago, 
Henry Wilson — re-united with Sumner, with Bird, with Robinson, 
and other companions — wrote this to Mr, Bird from Xatick, just 
before setting out for Wasliington : — 

" ' Mv DEAR Sir, — I regret that it is not in my power to accept your invitation 
to visit our very dear associate and friend of so many years on the anniversary of 
his wedding. It would, I assure you, give me sincere pleasure to join with you and 
other friends in paying him and his wife this tribute of affectionate regard. . . . 
I send witli this sum my gratitude for the long services of one of the best pens 
ever given to our sacred cause, and my respect, friendship, and love. May God 
give to our dear friend Robinson, his wifa and cliildren, health, and years of happi- 
ness, and the constant friendship of such friends as will be with them on this occa- 
sion ! ' 

" The house was crowded all the evening with friends who had 
come to offer their congratulations, while messages were read from 
others who could not be present." 

More than a hundred letters were received, containing 
friendl}' and congratulatoiy messages, from which the follow- 
ing are selected. 

From Charles Sumner : — 

" I beg you not to measure my sympathy with your object, or my 
regard for W. S, R., by this contribution. I wish it were a great deal 
larger. I cannot think of his constant, unfailing, and vivid pen, 
always for freedom and human rights, without admiration and grati- 
tude. Such remarkable service deserves an honorable pension, placing 
our friend above care, and making him easy for the rest of his lifo." 

From John G. "Whittier : — 

" I am glad of an opportunity to testify my high appreciation of 
our friend William S. Robinson, on the occasion of his twenty-fifth 
marriage anniversary. He has been a power in the State, and has 
done noble sersice to freedom and humanity. That he and his excel- 
lent lady may happily live to enjoy their fiftieth anniversary, is the 
wish, I am sure, of all their friends." 



"WARRINGTON." 147 

From Hon. Joliu II. Clifford : — 

" I enclose a trifle — ' would it were worthier ! ' — toward the testi- 
monial of their friends, with a feeling so well expressed in the admo- 
nitions of an old but unknown English poet, which, if he has never 
happened to see it, ' Warrington ' will value more highly than the 
slight token of my regard that accompanies it. 

' Tliongh !<mall thy gift may seem to be, 
■WitliholJ it not ; for like the night, 
By countless little stars made bright, 
Thy offering, joined to thousands more, 
May brighten dwellings dark before.' " 

From Hon. G. F. Hoar : — 

"I remember with great pleasure and gratitude Mr. Robinson's 
early labors and sacrifices to the cause of humanity, freedom, and 
purity, his pleasant wit, and lofty scorn for all charlatanism and 
impostors, whatever their position or pretences." 

And others, no less gratifying, from friends far and 
near : — 

" I make my little contribution to you as a part of the debt the 
republic owes you." 

" You are of that class of men who build up others, and not your- 
self ; who furnish the ideas which make the capital in trade of many 
politicians." 

" * Warrington ' has become a household word in Massachusetts." 

" Enclosed is my check ; and say to Mr. Robinson that this is only a 
part of what is due from ail such as myself for his long writing and 
unpaid labors in years gone by in the cause of right." 

" If I could multiply my subscription an hundred-fold, it would 
not worthily rei^rescnt the affectionate esteem in which I hold his 
great services to many a struggling cause, and for that sturdy inde- 
pendence which has made his voice not merely the echo of accepted 
opinion, but a trumpet-call forward." 

Poems on the occasion were written b}' F. B. Sanborn and 
B. P. Shillabcr ("Mrs. Partington ") . An address was read 
•b}- F. W. Bird, to which "Warrington " responded, sa3ing, — 

"I can hardly find words in which to make reply to the many 
compliments which have been extended to me this evcTiing, and 
adequately to express my gratitude for the many kind acts and sub- 



148 MEMOIR OF 

stantial gifts of which I have been the recipient. I .appreciate fully, 
however, the kindness which has prompted them, and feel deeply, 
also, your approval of my course. I do not think that I deserve all 
that has been said in Mr. Bird's address. His words, however, 
brought to mind more forcibly than ever the long feeling of fellow- 
ship which has existed between us during so many yeai's ; and he 
could indulge in a little congratulation. I desire to thank him, 
and to convey to him personally, as the oldest and most intimate of 
my political associates, and to convey to all my friends besides, my 
deep and heartfelt thanks for this complimentary expression of their 
friendship. I am rejoiced to see so many here to-night, — some, too, 
with whom I have had variances ; and I can only, in conclusion, 
assure them all of the deep obligation I, and my family also, feel 
towards them." . 

Mr. Robinson's spirits were much cheered bv this evidence 
of the affection of his friends, and for a few weeks he was 
quite himself again. But the blow had been struck too deep. 
As he expressed it, he had weathered the storm of last 
year's defeat; but he felt the shake of it in his timbers yet. 
He was urged to become again a candidate for the office of 
clerk of the House b}' some of his friends who were anxious 
to reinstate him ; but, though assured that he had a fair show 
for election, he peremptorily declined, not feeling able to 
enter the contest, or go all over the ground again. It was 
thought that a long sea-voj'age, and an entire change of 
scene, would be the best thing to recuperate his health and 
spirits. Accordingl}', he engaged passage for himself, his 
wife, and his son, on board the steamship " Parthia," which 
sailed for Liverpool Jan. 31, 1874. 



"WAEEINGTON." 149 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE SUCCESSFUL MAN. 

[18T4-1876.] 

" The day is shout, and the work is great ; but the laborers are idle, though the 
reward be great, and the Master of the work presses. It is not incumbent upon 
thee to complete the work ; but thou must not, therefore, cease from it. If thou 
hast worked much, great shall be thy reward; for the Master who employed thee 
is faithful in his payment. But know that the true reward is not of this world." — 
Talmud. 

In " Warrington's " Letters from Abroad in 1874 will be 
found his impressions of foreign life. He wrote very little 
during his absence, complete rest from his pen having been 
enjoined upon him b}' his friends. He carried letters of in- 
troduction to diplomates and distinguished persons in England 
and on the Continent, but (with one exception) did not 
present them, preferring to see the people with his own ej^es, 
and to follow his own idea of sight-seeing. In London 
his part}' occupied lodgings on Craven Street, within walking- 
distance of the Strand and Fleet Street, the Temple, and the 
Inns of Court. When not driving to places of note in a 
Hansom cab, — that "London institution," as Mr. Sumner 
called it, Avhich, for a shilling and sixpence, carries the sight- 
seer all over the vast cit}", — he delighted to follow in the foot- 
steps of Dickens and Thackeraj^, and locate their imaginary 
characters. With George Warrington he threaded the 
Inner Temple : he found Dombe}' and Son on Cheapside ; 
traced the footsteps of Samuel Johnson along the Strand, 
and, in memory of the great lexicographer, lunched at the 
chop-houses, and dined at the Bite Tavern. He was very 



150 MEMOIR OF 

fond of Loudon, which seemed to him like an old home 
again revisited. London is very homelike to an American : 
in many respects it is better than home, particularly to an 
invalid. Personal comfort, the fact that one must eat and 
sleep, is everywhere recognized. " More servants wait on 
man than he'll take notice of." Ich dien seems written in 
ever}^ department which caters to the stranger ; and the neat- 
handed English serving-maid, 'Elizabeth or Salh', is found 
ever3'where. Mr. Robinson preferred London and the honest 
stability of the English people — "whose yes," he said, 
"means yes, and whose no means no" — to the Parisians 
and their cit}', which, though wonderfully' attractive, seemed 
showy and insincere. "London and Paris are enough," 
wrote Mr. Sumner to him on his departure. But he went 
farther, — down into Ital}-, whose repose and interest he 
enjoyed to the full ; to Carlsbad in Bohemia, to drink its 
waters in his vain search for health ; and back, b}- way of 
Switzerland and the Rhine, to London again. AVhile in 
Paris, in March, the news came to him of Mr. Sumner's 
death. He was very much prostrated by this sad event, 
and sorrowed deepl}' with the countr}- in the loss of this 
great and good leader of the people. His solicitude at the 
state of affairs at home was also increased thereb}', and he 
found himself unable to keep from devising modes of politi- 
cal action. He said at this date that it was no use for his 
friends to send him out of the country to rest from political 
labor ; for his head was full of politics all the time : he had 
studied the situation, planned the coming campaign, and 
might as well be at home, writing it out. For this reason he 
did not receive the expected benefit from his foreign tour. 
He was a student of men and politics ; but his country and 
her needs were his first thought, abroad as well as at home.' 



1 This is shown by his letters. There is no hiatus between the last 
" \\'arrington " letter written before leaving home and the first one 
written after his return. Tlie thread of iiolitical action is taken np 
just whore it was left; and the letter of Oct. 27 (less than two weeks 
after liis return) grasps the whole aspect of political affairs. 



"WARRINGTOK." 151 

lie had studied and planned the whole fall campaign. 
Parties and their movements were to him like chess-men 
advancing upon the board. He knew when it was time to 
call "Check," and did not hesitate (as of old) to lose a 
pawn, and capture a castle. 

Some friends were disappointed at the meagreness of his 
letters concerning foreign countries. But he was one who 
must Avrite about the thing which to him was of the most 
importance ; and Europe was found wanting in the balance 
when weighed against the aifairs of his own countr3\ Writ- 
ing from Carlsbad to his friend G. H. Monroe, he said of his 
health, — 

"I suppose I am better physically, at any rate; though whether 
the mineral waters have done me any good, I do not feel sure. Per- 
haps it is the repose and regimen. But I have never been free of the 
feeling that I ought to be at work, more or less. And yet I don't feel 
up to a full day's work six times a week. Somebody ought to give me 
an office : even a sinecure would be better than nothing. But, after 
all, what can such a heretic and mischief-maker as I am expect? " 

He was absent eight months, and returned b}' the Cunard 
steamship "Atlas," which sailed Oct. 1. The passage 
home was made very sad by an unfortunate accident which 
happened to one of the passengers, — the Rev. George D. 
Miles of St. John's Episcopal church of Taunton. Mr. 
Miles occupied the state-room adjoining Mr. Robinson's. 
In getting out of his berth (the upper one) , the brass rod b}' 
which he was holding gave way ; and he fell heavil}' upon 
the back of his head, inflicting a severe wound. He suf- 
fered great pain, and was confined to his berth the remaining 
ten daj-s of the vo3'age. On the arrival of the "Atlas" at 
Boston, he was carried to the INIassachusetts General Hos- 
pital, where he died. At the post-mortem examination, it was 
discovered that his neck Avas broken at the time of the fall. 
He had lived nineteen or twent}^ da3-s in that condition. 

Mr. Robinson's personal appearance on his return was 
ver}'^ disappointing to his friends, who had hoped to see 
a marked improvement. His disease had steadily made 



152 



MEMOIR OF 



progress ; aud, though temporarily' benefited by the change 
and rest, they sadly agreed that he was really no better: 
At the Bird-Club reception, given to welcome him on 
his return, he read sorrow and disappointment in the 
faces of the friends gathered there hoping to find the 
"Warrington" of old.^ Though gratified at their heart}' 
greetings, he felt, as he expressed it, that the monc}- had 
been thrown awaj- upon him, since he had not fulfilled 
the just expectation of those who had sent him away to 
recuperate and be read}' to fight their battles again. He 
resumed his letters in "The Springfield Republican," and 
wrote for "The Boston Daily News" weekly letters and 
articles. This continual draining of brain-force was too 
much for him. He wrote with all his old vigor, and it re- 
acted upon his frail body. On the evening of Jan. 20, 1875, 
after writing an article (for "The News") on Mr. Dawes,'' 
he was taken sick, not with an}' new phase of his disease, or 
paralysis, or any thing of the sort, but with an increased 
weakness and pressure upon the brain caused by overwork. 



1 The following gentlemen were present. Tbej- ai-e copied from the 
list as he wrote it on his return home. 



F. W. Bud. 



W. S. Robinson. 

Gov. Talbot. 

35. F. Robinson. 

Geo. H. Monroe. 

A. "W. Beard. 

E. L. Pierce. 

Col. Henry Walker. 

E. P. Robinson. 

Heniy D. Hyde. 

J. M. S. Williams (came in). 

Robt. T. Davis. 

Saml. Bowles. 

Asa P. Potter. 

Elizur Wright. 

C. S. Wasson. 

Wni. L. Burt. 

J. M. W. Yeninton. 

Chas. A. Phelps. 



Prof. Bonamy Price of Oxford. 

E. R. Hoar. 
Edw. Atkinson. 
Adin Thayer. 
Dr. O. Martin. 
Thos. Drew. 

J. Boturae, Jr. 
Dr. Geo. B. Loring. 
M. F. Dickinson, Jr. 
Chas. G. Davis. 
Win. II. Fox. 

F. B. Sanborn. 

C. A. B. Shopard. 

'Charley Field. 

R. C. Dunham. 

Robt. O. Fuller (Cambridge). 

J. A. Lane. 

Willard Phillips. 

A. G. Brown. 



Dr. Eates Howe. 



2 See Brief Biograpliies. 



"WARRINGTON." 153 

This illness was exaggerated. He was reported to be in a 
dying condition, and obituaries were written for the news- 
papers. When in a few days he Avas able to read again, he 
had the rare satisfaction (he said) of reading his own obitua- 
ries, and enjoying the good things said about himself. The 
one which follows, written b}' James Redpath, his neighbor 
and friend, touched him deeply ; and he sent a letter of 
thanks, closing thus : "I am almost sorry I am not dead, if, 
dj'ing, I might merit such words ; but I'll do as much for you 
some time." . 

"WARRINGTON." 

"William S. Robinson is lying on his death-bed." This was the 
sad news that greeted me last night. When his pulse shall be stilled, 
one of the bravest and truest hearts of our generation shall have 
ceased to beat. His death will be a public calamity. Always rare, 
his type is daily becoming rarer, if not in our scientific and literary, 
without doubt in our political life. For he had convictions, and he 
had courage ; and without the breastwork of an assured social posi- 
tion or of an independent fortune, and without a band of devoted 
followers pledged and proud to fight his battles, he was as brave in 
the advocacy of his views, and as independent'in his criticisms of 
politicians, as Wendell Phillips, or Gerritt Smith, or Gen. Butler. lie 
feared neither majorities nor ranlv. lie neitlier quailed before the 
wild beasts of public life; nor, like the lion that he was, did he " ever 
count the number of the sheep in the fold " when his conscience told 
him to attack it. 

I have always regarded him — his circumstances taken into account 
— as the bravest public man in New England, without any exception, 
and without disparaging tlie other noble gentlemen who have fought 
for great principles and the outcast classes in tliis State. But it needs 
simply a brave spirit, with earnest convictions, to steel one's self against 
public opinion, when it is believed to be wrong, provided one's own 
bread and butter is safe from its attack. But»when a man is poor, 
and has a family depending upon his weekly earnings for support; 
when' his position is constantly placed in jjeril by party action, and is 
one of the influences which politicians strive to control, — it needs the 
heart of a hero to criticise without fear and without concealment, 
and without equivocation in sense or phrase, tlie errors of the party, 
and the motives of its leaders. Not one man in ten thousand has 
this sort of pluck. "Warrington's" 'public life is a long and un- 
broken record of this spirit. He never was bribed to be silent; he 
never feared to be fearless. He smote wherever he believed that a 



154 MEMOIR OF 

punishment was due. I have nowhere found a similar career in the 

biographies of public men; and I liave never yet loolced into the eyes 
of any officeliolder wlio was worthy to be named with him. 

In praising tliis lieroic trait, I do not intend to accord to him 
either a spirit of judicial impartiality, or to extol his methods, or to 
say Amen to his jud^jments. Like all born fighters, he sometimes 
gave cruel blows, and hurt men as disinterested as himself. I knew 
him for fifteen or twenty years, and we had both public and private 
disputations without number: but I never found this man intolerant 
to any one in whoso sincerity he had belief; nor, while always earnest 
to the verge or beyond the limit of bluntness, did he ever impatiently 
repel any candid presentation of opposing views. lie hated shams 
with the fierceness of Carlyle. He detested hypocrisy with so intense 
a bitterness, that it often led him to strike without mercy whoever 
was found even near any one whom he believed to be insincere ; but 
he never failed to honor both in public and private, and without 
regard to their creed, the men of his own type of character. 

I shall always recall with pleasure the lively conversations I have 
heard and taken part in between Gilbert (now Bishop) Haven and 
Mr. lloblnson. Whether theology or politics were the subjects, 
there were usually not two, but three, sides to the debate. The inter- 
views' were battles. If we happened to agree on a measure, we were 
sure to disagree about men. Once only, the fiery bishop and the fiery 
clerk overstepped the bounds of impersonal statements. I feared 
that it would sever their long and pleasant friendship, and the provo- 
cation on both sides was amply sufficient; but, to the credit of both 
of these sincere and strong men, I found it an easy task to renew 
their good feeling. I mention these talks to refute the opinion, so 
generally held, that Mr. Robinson was an intolerant man; which was 
as unjust as it would be to accuse a soldier of intolerance when firing 
against the enemy. He believed in fighting, and he fought well; and 
duriu'j the fight he was deaf to counsel, as a warrior oujlit to be. But 
before it, and after it, he was always a sincere and open-minded man. 

I recall with no little satisfaction the fact, that while, during the 
first Butler campaign, we both wrote more than any other two writ- 
ers on the press who \vere not professional journalists, and had many 
private controversies as well, no word passed to mar for one moment 
the long-continued kindliness of our personal friendship. More than 
any one'man, he defeated Butler; and what was his reward? Xo one 
ever sjMjke of him as governor; and, when Butler's friends rallied to 
defeat him for clei'k, the governor-elect did not utter one word in his 
behalf. He told me this incident, and said, that, as far as he knew, 
I was the only person, who had any influence whatever, who had 
gone out of his way to protect him. And I was on the opposite side. 
Well, it is like aristocracies everywhere: they grasp the prize, and 



"WARRINGTON." 155 

neglect the soldiers who fought their way to it, whenever they dare. 
The Hoars get the credit ; the Washburns get the offices ; the Robin- 
sons get — the blows. It will be different by and by, I hope, when 
the people come to their own. Let me add one word about Mr. Rob- 
inson in his family. He has been my neighbor for ten years or 
more. His private life was as beautiful as his public life was brave. 
As husband and as father, he was above reproach. No scandal ever 
blighted his name, nor ever cast even a passing shadow over it. 

Rougli, brave, and honest warrior, true and sincere and tender 
friend, you have fought the good fight well ; the world is better for 
your life and your sword ; and among your saddest survivors will be 
many of us whom you smote with a valiant and terrible stroke in 
your days of battle. Farewell ! James Redpath.^ 

BosTOX, Jan. 23, 1875. 

"'"Warrington's' Manual of Parliamentaiy Law " ^ was 
issued earl}' in 1875. He had been engaged upon this work 
for several years, and had rewritten it several times, each 
time condensing it, until it was at least one-third smaller 
than the original manuscript. He read the first proof of 
this book to the members of his famil_y, re-reading those 
portions which would seem obscure to persons not accustomed 
to the technicalities of parliamentary law ; remarking at the 
time, joeosel}-, that he wanted to adapt the book to people of 
the meanest capacit}'. Mr. Sumner, speaking of it to the 
author, said, "It contains the cube root of parliamentary 
law." It was the aim of the author to give the principle, 
and not the details of practice ; the "cube root," rather than 
the " rule of three ; " and to place Ms readers on old Count 
Gurowski's platform, who said, when a trivial matter was 
explained to him, " 7, too^ know something." Had this book 
been more minute and verbose, it probably would have sold 

1 In a letter written by Mr. Piedpath after "Warrington's" death, 
he said of tliis obituary, "I am glad he liked it. I had long wanted a 
chanee to say what I then wrote; bat no opportunity appeared. I 
wrote it with tears in my eyes. I was thoroughly moved. It was 
kept in type several days, in the expectation that he would die soon. 
At last, when the announcement was made that he would recover, the 
editors insisted on publishing it anyhow, which they did, much to my 
surprise." 

2 Published by Lee & Shepard, Boston. 



156 MEMOIR OF 

better ; but as it contains the principle of the law of 
assemblies, and principles are un(l3ing, it ma}' sell bettei* 
after ten years' time than at present. For the result of what 
he did, "Warrington" looked, not to the present, but to 
"another da}- after to-daj'." In answer to some criticism 
on the lack of detail in the Manual, he wrote, — 

" I will not make a book of padding, sell it never so well; though I 
should be glad to improve this one, and probably could, in some 
respects. Some people tbink nothing is wise tbat does not confirm 
and strengthen their own ignorance. X'bnporle. George F. Iloar says 
I once gave him the gist of parliamentary law: ' Never put an ass in 
the cliair ; " and an ass is only a greater one for knowing the minutiae 
of parliamentary law, as the pettifogger is the greatest nuisance in 
the courts, and the quack in medicine and in the pulpit. I don't 
think I shall do much more to the Manual than to attach a few forms. 
If the book is of any use to the people, it is to teach thorn 2)rinciples, 
and how to act for themselves ; not to perplex them with forms on 
matters of little or no importance." 

In the Preface he says, — ' 

" The purpose of this Manual is to furnish to officers and members 
of legislative and other deliberative assemblies, and to societies of all 
kinds, a concise and practical guide in what is called ' Parliamentary 
Law.' . . . But in a country and in states governed by written consti- 
tutions, and where deliberative bodies are controlled by innumerable 
statutes and I'ules, often to the last degree unnecessary and useless 
for the end they profess to subsei-ve, this ' law ' is far less important. 
It has been customary to say that 'rules' are for the protection 
of minorities. A better definition is, that they are for the speedy, fair, 
and orderly transaction of business according to the will of the ma- 
jority. 

"This work, at any rate, is written upon the assumption that 
members of societies, orders, municipal bodies, and legislatures, are 
on an equality. If, to use the language of the Massachusetts Consti- 
tution (Article IX. of the Declaration of llights), 'all elections ought 
to be free, and all the inhabitants of the Conmionwealth . . . have 
an equal right to elect officers, and to be elected, for public employ- 
ments,' it seems to follow that all members of legislative and delib- 
erative bodies ought to be substantially upon an equality; at any rate, 
that the minimum, and not the maximum, of power and influence 
ought to be put into the hands of committees and presiding officers. 
This Manual is prepared upon that theory. The House of llepre- 
seatatives at Washington has tied itself up with rules, so that its 



"WARRINGTON." 157 

speaker, who should be its servant, and of little if any more impor- 
tance than any other member, is, in reality, the second or third officer 
of the government itself. Probably in a few years, when Congress shall 
have relinquished the attempt to make laws, not only for the National 
Government, but for states, cities, towns, and private corporations, 
or when it shall have put into hands of other bodies the duty of 
taking evidence and collecting facts on which to proceed in tlie 
making of statutes, the old practice will be resumed. 

" I have deemed it unnecessary, and even a hinderance, to persons 
having occasion to use a book like tliis, to make a large volume. It 
has cost me a good deal of time and labor to make it small enough. 
Cut, with the object I have already indicated, the plan on which it 
has been prepared has seemed to me a tolerably good one. It is a 
mixture of rule, advice, and 'parliamentary' principle, founded on the 
experience and the obvious necessities of bodies governed by the ' par- 
liamentary law.' As everybody knows, an assembly may, if it pleases, 
make rules for itself diametrically opposed to this law or principle. 
Those 'rules' are innumerable; and it is of no practical use to try to 
classify, illustrate, or mention them. Such of them as are based on 
correct principles will be found here. But, for the largest part, this 
book seeks to give the reasons for the ordinary and the best practice 
of the best ordered bodies. Given the reasons, and the practice ad- 
justs itself; the assembly transacts its work speedily, and with proper 
regard to the rights of all; and officers are prepared to meet objec- 
tions, and to answer questions with little or no hesitation. Without 
the reasons, members and officers have great difficulty in interpret- 
ing the rules, and in coming to just results without troublesome 
delays. 

" I wish only to say, in concluding this Preface, what I have in the 
work itself tried to make clear, that, wherever I have left it in doubt 
whether the principle laid down may be considered authoritative, it 
should, if approved, be provided for by rule. It is, of course, under- 
stood that it is necessary to make a rule whenever the principle is 
departed from. The rule governs ; but, if the rule be obscure or contra- 
dictory, let it be tried by the principle.''^ 

This little volume is the only book "Warrington" has 
left Avhich is at all indicative of the scope of his mind. 
During the last 3-ears of his life he had contemplated several 
books, — among them one on the " Life and Times of Charles 
Sumner," containing, also, his own reminiscences of political 
life, — and had made notes, to some extent, preparatory 
to a book on the Woman Question. He had thought of a 



158 MEMOIR OF 

book of selections from his published writings, to be called 
"Pen-Portraits," or something of that sort; and, while at 
Northampton, wrote to his wife to look over his scrap-books, 
and mark any thing she thought particularl}' good. Nothing 
had been done b}' him, however, at the time of his death. 

As soon as possible, " Warrington " resumed his pen, and 
wrote for the press at intervals until June (187")), when a 
few of his friends, becoming alarmed, insisted on his again 
taking absolute rest from all work. It was thought best 
that he* should leave the vicinity of Boston, since there 
would be less inducement to write if awa}- from customary 
scenes. Pursuing the advice of Mr. Bird and others, he 
went in June to a Avatcr-cure at Northampton, kept b}- Dr. 
Denniston. Tliere he staid over four months, a long and 
lonel}' exile from his friends, his home and family, his 
books and the pursuits congenial to him, hoping to be bene- 
fited. Before leaving home, he had said, tliat, if he could 
know he should be no better, he would not go awaj', but 
would work so far as his strength would allow, and die in 
harness. "Can it be," he said, looking around his library, 
" that I am to leave all this work undone?" From North- 
ampton he wrote, — 

" I am about satisfied that it will not be profitable for me to stay 
here much longer. There seems no special change in me, and I feel 
mucli better contented at home. The doctor has some excellent ideas ; 
but he don't know every thing, nor nuicli about my case. I cannot 
stay a great while without signs of permanent improvement. This 
loneliness is pretty trying to one who likes intelligent conversation 
and intercourse so well as I do. What made me come here? I fear 
I always do the wrong thing. What au ass is a sick man to leave 
home! It is too bad to lose all this summer at home, and by the 
sea-shore at Manomet, with the possibility, besides, of at least 
earning my living, which I could easily do if I were at home, and 
under whip and spur of coercion, or some other stimulus or induce- 
ment. I almost wisli I could get into the legislature this winter. I 
often think, that after I was knocked out of the procession in Janu- 
ary, IS?:], I ought to have fought my way back, and that 1 shall have 
to. Had I not better plunge into politics, and write again, and so 
plunge out of myself? Politics bother me contimially. It is of no 
use to say they must not. I am as much in the midst of them as If 



"WARRINGTON." 159 

at home; and, deterred as I ain from writing on them, they seethe in 
my brain continually," 

In October he wrote, — 

"I ought not to write so much; but I am chock-full of politics. 
Sometimes, and not seldom, I wish the Democrats would elect me, or 
nominate me for the Senate or House, so I could be useful again. 
What is the use of dragging along in my present way, lazy, because I 
I have no congenial occupation? I get low-spirited, because I know I 
am a good politician and legislator, and am good for little else. They 
knocked mo out of my ' sphere,' and I fear I made a mistake in not 
immediately fighting to get back. Is it too late now? God* knows, 
if there ever was a man of small ambition, and apt for usefuhiess, it 
is your servant and friend. My brain is active enough : I fear it has 

' Fretted the pigmy body to decay, 
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay.' 

My body is the trouble, and is ' servile to all the skyey influences.' 
The mind is the lord of the body, and, in turn, is enslaved by it; so 
that it is tit for tat. . . . You say you have reached Nirva?ia. If you 
have reached Nirvana, Jliave gone beyond." ^ 

He came home from Northampton in October. Happy 
in being among his friends again, for a time he seemed to 
rally ; but again the old stor}-, told so man}^ times, was 
repeated: "Out of work;" "No place for me." As he 
said, he had stepped out of the procession : it had closed up, 
and he was left behind. It is the common lot : let no man 
think he will be exempt. So soon is a sick man forgotten. 
Many will appreciate his feeling of being left, at his time of 
life, without the accustomed task, with idle hands, an empty 
purse, and fast- fading powers. At this date, I do not think, 
he could have been saved ; though, under the spur of some 
easy and congenial employment, his life might have been 
prolonged. Surely there should have been found a place 
for this servant of the people, this writer of other men's 
ideas (as he modestly styled himself), this founder of a 

1 " Tlie Rabat who hath reached Nirvajia says, ' I await the appointed 
time for the cessation of existence. I have no wish to live; I have no 
wish to die. Desue is extinct.' " — Max Mulleb: Chips from a German 
Workshop, vol. i. p. 285. 



160 MEMOIR OF 

party still powerful, — some place where he could have felt 
at ease, pecuniarily at least, for the few cla3's that were j'et 
left to him. But it is not for such men as " Warrington " 
to grow old in the service, and retire forgotten upon 
the pension-list: the}^ go "from the heat of battle, and in 
peace ; " their labors cease at noontide. 

He went to the State House a few times during the winter, 
and was interested in legislative matters. He was solicited 
to become a member of the " third house," and could have 
named liis own price for such services ; but he was not in the 
market for that sort of work. He read the newspapers, or 
heard them read, up to the da}- of his death ; and took a keen 
interest in the exposure of corruption at Washington, and 
the woman-suffrage debates in the Massachusetts Senate. 
He wrote at intervals for "The Republican;" and an un- 
finished letter was published after his death. This was one 
of his best, showing how clear his biain was when free from 
the oppression of disease. He suffered no pain, but was 
weighed down hy a continued sleepiness. He would drop 
asleep in the iniddle of a word or sentence, and, waking 
up, would continue without interrupting the context. He 
conversed on philosophical and political questions to the 
last. One of the last books he opened was a law-book, 
in order to decide some question of judicial proceedings. 
While reading, he fell asleep, and the heav}- volume dropped 
from his lap : it was picked up, and held for him ; and he 
continued his research. He did not of his own accord 
consult doctors ; and, though he listened paticntl}' to the 
many methods of cure prescribed b}' his friends, he tried 
few of them.^ Heroic treatment was advocated ; but he 
refused to be experimented upon, remembering the doubtful 
result of such treatment upon both Mr. Sumner and Mr. 
Wilson. His latest opinion of what the closing scenes of 
a sick man's life should be is well expressed in Matthew 

1 The look of pleased, far-seeing conteinplatiou with ^Yhich he re- 
garded a sanguine friend who offered a new scheme of cure is one to 
be remembered. It was as if he said, " What, cdiie me 1 " 



"WARBINGTON." IGl 

Arnold's poem, " A Wish." This poem, with one otlier, he 
carried in his pocket-book for many years, as here printed. 

A WISH. 

I ask not that my bed of death 

From bands of greedy heirs be free ; 
For these besiege the latest breath 

Of Fortune's favored sons, not me. 

I ask not each kind soul to keep 

Tearless when of my death he hears : 
Let those who will, if any, weep ; 

There are worse plagues on earth than tears. 

I ask but that my death may find 

The freedom to my life denied ; 
Ask but the folly of mankind 

Then, then, at last, to quit my side. 

Spare me the whispering, crowded room ; 

The friends who come and gape and go ; 
The ceremonious air of gloom, — 

All that makes death a hideous show. 

Nor bring, to see me cease to live, 

Some doctor, full of phrase and fame, 
To shake his sapient head, and give 

The ill he cannot cure a name. 

Nor fetch, to take the accustomed toll 

Of the poor sinner bound for death, 
His brother-doctor of the soul. 

To canvass with official breath 

The future and its viewless things, — 

That undiscovered mystery 
Which one who feels Death's winnowing wings 

Must needs read clearer, sure, than he. 

Bring none of these ; but let me be. 

While all around in silence lies. 
Moved to the window near, and see 

Once more before my dying eyes, 

Bathed in the sacred dews of mom, 
The wide, aerial landscape spread, 



162 MEMOIR OF 

The world wbicli was ere I was bom, 
Tlie world which lasts when I am dead; 

Which never was the friend of one. 

Nor promised love it could not give, 
But lit for all its generous sun, 

And lived itself, and made us live. 

There let me gaze, till I become 

In soul with what I gaze on wed ; 
To feel the universe my home; 

To have before my'mind — instead 

Of the sick-room, the mortal strife, 

The turmoil for a little breath — 
The pure, eternal course of life, 

Not human combatings with death. 

Thus feeling, gazing, let me grow 

Composed, refreshed, ennobled, clear; 

Then willing let my spirit go 

To work or wait elsewhere or here. 

As his disease advanced, he uiourucd that he had come to 
the end of all his labors when there was so much work to be 
done. lie loved life, and often said, " This life is so good, 
that it seems impossible for it to be wholly interrupted by 
death." He was not one who talked much of spiritual 
things. He had small belief in creeds, in schemes of salva- 
tion, or in modes of faith. He trusted much in a higher 
Power, and sought to abide by the teachings of a pure con- 
science. He had not cherished an active belief in the 
immortalit}' of the soul ; being too busy, and too happy in 
the things of this world, to feel an}' drawing towards another. 
He could have said with John Sterling, " I tread the common 
road into the great darkness, without any thought of fear, 
and with very much of hope." He did not often discuss 
the subject : it rested with him as it had been left when his 
little boy died ; and his mind was seldom led to it by any 
conversation. It was a heav}' sorrow to those about him to 
think that he mi^ht be leaving forever all the acquirements 
of life, and that his wisdom was to become as notliing. 



"WARRINGTON." 163 

A few weeks before his death, he sat one day, as was his 
wont, before his open fire, iu a meditative posture, witli his 
hands at rest. His wife spoke to him ; and he looked up 
with the bright smile so well remembered by all who knew 
him, and said, "It is curious how the belief in the immor- 
tality' of the soul grows upon 3'ou. As I have been sitting 
here, day after day, it has come to me ; and I am sure of it, — 
as sure of it, and of living again, as I am that I am here, — 
more sure ; for I don't know half the time whether I am here 
in the body or not. It is just like going into another room, 
— into that room" (pointing to the open parlor-door near 
him). " Wh}', this world and the next are joined as closelj' 
as m3'two hands " (opening them, and placing them together, 
one above the other, with palms reversed) . " There they are, 
no break, no break between, no gulf to pass. I feel every 
day like one who walks b}' a hedge, and is looking for a gate, 
a gap to go through, to walk on the other side." After 
that, the subject was one of common talk, and was spoken of 
in the midst of ever^'-day affairs. Frequentl}', when he was 
spoken to, he would look up, smile, and place his hands as I 
have described, saj-ing only, '■'■ No break, no break.' ^ God 
was ver}' good to him. He had tried to lead the people to 
truth and right in this life : was it not given him, in some 
part, to lead them still farther, — to a belief in the life beyond, 
towards the great centre of Truth and Right itself? The 
desire of his heart was to help his kind, and lead them to 
better things. He is blessed indeed, who, in becoming him- 
self assured through his 'own experience and insight of an 
immortal life, can help to show the people whom he loves 
that this world is but the anteroom to the life beyond. 

The hope of immortality, of a continued indi-sidualit}-, 
is so vital to the thinking soul as it progresses, and to so 
few is it given to " grow into the belief" as "Warrington " 
did, that for the sake of the " doabting Thomases," the con- 
scientious souls who must see the heavens open before they 
are convinced, I have waived whatever reluctance I have 
felt, and now give to the public my honored husband's expe- 



.164 MEMOIR OF 

rience. Before this inner growth, this revelation, came to 
him, he was troubled at the thought of leaving life, and 
those who had depended upon him ; but, in the near vision 
of the future, he became reconciled. Like an overloaded 
ship, he was trying to make port through a heavj' and trou- 
bled sea. One b^-one, the burdens, tiie cares, the ambitions 
of life were dropped overboard. The last heavy thought — 
regret that the companion of his life, who had borne with 
him the labor and heat of the struggle, and had enjoyed so 
few of its triumphs, must now be left to begin it all over 
again — at last followed the rest. The ship was lightened ; 
and now with him 

"The port, well worth the cruise, is near, 
And every wave is charmed." 

The pen that had been said to drop gall and wormwood 
was now filled with the "oil of gladness," and spoke only 
words of loving reminiscences of old friends. The wonder- 
ful contrast between the gentleness and sweetness of his 
nature and the acerbit}' of his pen was no longer visible. 
He could not even bear to hear those who had injured him 
criticised or spoken of unkindl}'. lie was like a little child, 
at peace with all men. As the veil of flesh grew thin, he 
became, as he said, a seer; for he saw visions, and dreamed 
dreams. "I knew a man," said St. Paul (" whether in the 
bod}', I cannot tell ; or whether out of the bod}', I cannot 
tell : God knoweth) ; such a one caught up to the third 
heaven." "Warrington's" chamber was full of imaginary 
visitants : his chair was surrounded b}' children and people, 
— fair visions unseen by those with whom he talked. They 
were not dead friends, or an}- that he had ever known ; not 
even his beloved sister, or his little son, "the divine boy in 
the upper pastures." lie was alwa3-s awake when he belield 
these visions, and could see them the same whether his eyes 
were shut or open. They were so common, that they were 
mentioned freely, as the advent of other guests would be. 
Often he said to friends present only this: " They're thick 



''WARRINGTON." 165 

to-daj' ; they're thick to-daj'." On going to bed he would 
say, " I shall see ghosts to-night." But he was not afraid ; 
for, like Coleridge, " he had seen too many of them." 

One of his most singular visions was in the night, a few 
weeks before he died, which impressed him so deepl}', that he 
woke his wife to write it down before he forgot it. While 
lying in his bed awake, the most beautiful colored drapery 
began to form around his room, and to droop down from the 
ceiling over his head, in the midst of which was a calm, grand 
face. He got out of bed " to explore," and went all round 
his room, past the three windows, and moved the drapery from 
side to side as he passed. This phenomenon was frequently 
repeated, always with the same appearance of reality. He 
was not under the influence of medicine ; for he took none. 
He did not accept the theor}- of so-called Spiritualism, and 
was not deluded or deceived b}' the mystery of those singu- 
lar visions, but philosophically analj'zed, and logically ex- 
plained, the phenomenon. He said, that, as the veil of flesh 
grew thin, the mental eye became accustomed to a nearer 
vision of the future, and could see clearl}' those inhabitants 
of the atmosphere invisible to a more earthly sight. To 
those accepting the theory of heavenly visitants, it may 
seem strange that no deceased member of his family, and no 
old friend, should have come to him ; but to himself this was 
no myster}'. "On the other side of the hedge, as here," 
said he, " in the scenes of their progressive life, friends may 
be widel}' scattered from one another and from us." Of 
his condition he wrote to F. W. Bird, Feb. 20, 1876, as 
follows : — 

I don't Ijnow bow I am, except that I am in a very shadowy con- 
dition of mind, especially o' niglits, as one who walks along a hedge 
and sees through, or thinks he does. I feel a great indisposition to 
worlv, — largely laziness, but also a fear that I may go too far. Am 
very sleepy at times. Am seeing lots of apparitions and ghosts, but 
none that I think I cannot account foi'. I doubt wliether I shall come 
in this week. Am at home all the time, and shall be glad to see you, 
or indeed any of my friends. Remember me to Monroe, Clapp, San- 
born, ef ai. Does Bowles ever come down ? I should like to see him. 
Write. W. S. R. 



166 MEMOIR OF 

About Christmas time, "Warrington" dined with his 
friends at tlie Bird Club, of which he was one of the original 
members. Ilis last visit to Boston was to attend the funeral 
of Dr. S. G. Howe, also an old-time member of this club. 
His last published writings will be found among the selec- 
tions. He died on the 11th of March, the anniversary 
of Charles Sumner's death, — the man, above all others, 
whom he most reverenced and believed in, and b}- whom he 
was so much regarded in return. His death was not unex- 
pected. It was felt by his family that the feeble light 
might at qx\j moment go out. He had been dressed every 
day, and had sat down stairs by his open fire. On the 
evening before he died, he went up stairs to his chamber as 
usual. He awoke several times, and drew up the curtain at 
his bedside to look out into the night. He was awake, and 
talking freely with his wife, not twenty- minutes before the 
time when, holding the hands he loved best on earth, he 
fell asleep, and " was not ; for God took him." 

"As the last perfection of a work of art, may we not 
discern symbolic meaning? In that divinely transfigured 
sleep as of victory resting over the beloved face which now 
knows thee no more, read (if thou canst for tears) the 
confluence of time with eternity, and some gleam of the 
latter peering through." 



"WARRINGTON." 167 



CHAPTER X. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

" Even for the dead I will not bind 

My soul to grief : death cannot long divide ; 
For 'tis as if the rose that climbed 

My garden wall had bloomed the other side." 

Unknown. 

"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last 
end be like his." It is the life that has been lived that alone 
makes it possible to die such a death as I have tried to de- 
scribe. After all the grasping, when the hands are empty, 
— as all must be at last, — it is the good deeds that abide, 
and hold fast, and fill all the space. We do not speak of 
him as dead. His spirit still pervades the chamber, the 
house where he dwelt. 

"Warrington" had no public funeral. He was buried 
without honors. No eulogy was given, no resolutions offered 
from the House he had served, no long procession followed 
him. In the quiet manner he would have preferred, as befit- 
ting one of the people, all that was earthlj' of him was car- 
ried to its rest. At his house in Maiden a few friends 
gathered, brought their floral tributes, and discoursed ten- 
derly of their departed townsman and friend. He lay in his 
sunn}' librar}-, all open to the da}^, side by side with his books, 
and the desk at which he had labored, and written so many 
brave words. Dr. Bartol of the West Church, Boston, spoke 
as follows : — 

" My friends of this bereaved family, and of this company that is 
not altogether sad, there is some joy, some hope, in that we have 
been singing. I purposely sacrificed, this day, affairs of some public 



168 MEMOIR OF 

concern, that I might, by my presence here, pay unaffected tribute to 
that man in that coffin, so fittingly hiid in that place, by the desk 
where he stood so wearilessly ; to pay tribute to a sense, long felt, 
of courage, patience, modesty, humility, with which he served the 
truth. Why should not the orator pay tribute to one who spoke so 
well ? Why should not the preacher pay tribute to a journalist who 
preached sermon after sermon which arrested the attention of hun- 
dreds of thousands? and, if to a journalist, why not to one whom I 
ought to call the ' prince of journalists ' ? lie has hardly left a peer, 
and no equal, on topics which for years have occupied his pen. His 
constant effort Avas ever to show these things — matters of public 
interest — in the light of truth and morality : such was the habit of 
the man whom we are here to respect, — to respect for his sincerity, an 
acute conscience, a sense of right. He was the ' Junius ' of America; 
and this is not said at random, or by report, or with mockery, as a 
parrot, what other folks have said, but from conversance with the 
man's contributions to the public prints, from the close following of 
his literary productions, frotn communion with William S. Robinson. 
The fault found with his writings may be ascribed to the fact that his 
arrows of truth hit the mark. He drew his enemies' fire, because he 
drew their blood. He was the sheriff of the moral sense, the execu- 
tor of the law of righteousness. His pen was tempered by a holy 
fire, and strengthened by conviction that antagonism to crimes and 
errors of thought and judgment was its only, its proper use. His 
creed was simple, and expressed in the words, ' God,' 'duty,' 'immor- 
tality.' It is somewhat surprising, in making this review of Mr. 
Robinson, how some of our best and greatest men are feeling the 
narrowness of denominational terms." 

Dr. Bartol spoke very beautifully of the long line of illus- 
trious personages who have moved be3'oncl the ' ' hedges ' ' of 
this world, and included with the names of Andrew, Lincoln, 
Sumner, and Wilson, that of Robinson. '"It is not ihe 
place or time to refer to his public career ; but I cannot help 
remarking, that though Mr. Robinson had long and ably 
filled the position of clerk of the Massachusetts House, yet, 
in consequence of his unswerving fidelit}' to truth, he was 
not allowed to retain the office." Dr. Bartol closed the 
eulogy, which flowed from the depths of his heart, by a 
reference to the personal character of Mr. Robinson. Had 
his reward been equal to his talents, he would have been 
wealthy ; but he left one of the greatest legacies to his family 



"WARRINGTON." 169 

in his cliaracter and name.^ Hymns were sung ; and pra^-er 
was offered by Rev. D. M. Wilson, Unitarian clergy-man of 
Maiden. 

The funeral-services were continued in Concord, in the old 
parish-church, where "Warrington" had first heard Dr. 
Ripky preach; and Dr. Ripley's successor, Rev. Grindall 
Re3'nolds, addressed the assembled friends as follows : — 

" You have brought what remains visible of your dear friend to 
the old home, where, amid social, literary, and i)olitical influences in 
his youth, I take it, very earnest and quickening, his character re- 
ceived its first sliaping. You have brought him to that old church 
where he formed not a little that religious faith which was behind his 
intense moral and philanthropic activity and faithfulness, and which, 
in his last hours of feebleness and failing powers, gave him serene 
peace and trust. You have brouglit the dust precious to you, to bury 
in that soil where sleeps the dust of his ancestors for two generations, 
and that of his own child. It seems fitting so to do. Gladly, yet 
with sadness too, we receive back all that remains mortal to the 
place wliich has so many memories of his brave and strong spirit to 
cherish. 

" Your friend was not simply a private citizen: in the true sense, 
lie was a public man. True, his personality was not often i>ut forth 
prominently. He did not hold, and he did not seek, many offices 
which brought him before the world ; but he was a public man, in 
that, to the very core of his being, he was full of that public spirit 
by which he took a perpetual and fervent interest in all things which 
concerned the interests of the community, of humanity; and in 
that, with that weapon which he wielded with such consummate 
skill, — the pen, — he was perpetually laboring to advance what 
seemed to him the welfare and true progress of man. By his sa- 
gacious foresight, by his large knowledge, by his keen and pungent 
wit, by his undoubting faith, he took his place among large public 
influences. When you have excepted a few great names, it will be 
admitted that not many have done more to carry our good Common- 

1 In a discourse at his church on the following sabbath, Dr. Bartol 
said, " W. S. Robinson -was the censor of our American sin and shame. 
He was a Theodore Parker, addressing a larger audience from a higher 
pulpit. Bitter was he, indeed, against corruption in any form. Doubt- 
less he had faults; but his virtues were real. He was one, at least, 
who wa^ not terrified by the tempers and the hate of the multitude. 
He inflicted a wound on that leviathan of sin that swims in our muddy 
pool of politics, and laughs at the shaking of a spear." 



170 MEMOIR OF 

wealth forward in that glorious way of philanthropy and liberty in 
which it has travelled than he did. 

"The thing which can be said first of his character is, that it was 
one of which we can afford to tell the whole truth. Like the great 
Protector, he could say, ' Paint me as I am,' with all the virtues and 
defects. One thing is clear: the objects which he set before him to 
forward were objects becoming a high-minded man to accept. To 
promote good measures ; to elevate to power good men ; to attack by 
every weapon of argument, of ridicule, of appeal, which wi'ongod 
and oppressed ; to unmask hypocrites, and to take away Iheir power 
to injure, — these objects, according to the best of his discenmient 
and power, he sought to attain. No one, however opposed, suspected 
him of wilfully sustaining any thing base or mean or wrong. How- 
ever he fought, he always fought with a good conscience, and unde- 
terred by any obstacles, — whether failing health, or risk of personal 
popularity, or opposition of friends; and, as it seems to me, he 
fought the fight with remarkable unselfishness. lie did not ask much 
portion for himself, or much reward of any sort. He was content to 
live simply, and to loorlc while it was day. 

" That he sometimes erred in judgment, that he sometimes made 
attacks which were undeserved, that, possessing as few a trenchant 
wit and pungent humor, he frequently used them with undue sever- 
ity, his dearest friends no doubt Avould admit. But, admitting all, his 
public influence was beyond peradventure great, wholesome, on the 
side of public righteousness, and not against it, — for man's true 
rights and progress. In personal relations he had great power of 
attaching people to him deeply, even people whom he had criticised 
and opposed. He was bright, cheerful, full of wit, full of knowledge, 
warm-hearted, faithful, trustworthy; and so he had a great circle of 
those who believed in him, enjoyed him, and clung to him in health, 
and quite as deeply in sickness and decline. We cannot go far behind 
the veil which properly secludes the private relations and home; but 
we can say he was faithful and affectionate in all its relations, a true 
husband, an indulgent and tender father. 

" He was not faultless. No one would believe us if we said that. 
He had the faults, and he had the great virtues, of a bold, warm- 
hearted, sturdy nature, which had its own vigorous and conscientious 
belief, and which with the Avhole heart hated wrong and hated false- 
hood. And so it was not a life lived for nought. It accomplished 
and was accomplishing a vast deal which was good and valuable; 
which was for the increase of human welfare, and for the strengthen- 
ing of things right and true. And now in its fulness, in its early 
autumn days, when with the ripening of years and the chastening of 
trial we might have expected a sweeter and richer fruitage than even 
in youth, in manhood, that life for here is closed. Kegrets are 



"WARRINGTON." 171 

human; and yet with the human regrets mingles the divine and 
heavenly instinct, which tells that there is no testimony to immor- 
tality so clear, so touching, so indisputable, as what we call death of 
those who have in them intellect, affections, high faith, good pur- 
poses, whose full work is not yet. The work drops here from our 
nerveless hands, only that in the world seen by the eye of faith a 
nobler work may be taken up." 

Prayer was again offered by Rev. Mr. Wilson, and hymns 
were sung. The beautiful hymn by Sir Henry Wotton, 
sung both at Maiden and at Concord, is here given : — 

How happy is he born or taught 

Who serveth not another's will; 
Wliose armor is his honest thought, 

And simple truth his highest skill ; 

Wliose passions not his masters are ; 

Whose soul is still prepared for death, 
Not tied unto the world with care 

Of prince's ear or vulgar breath; 

Who God doth late and early pray 
More of his grace than goods to lend ; 

And walks with man from day to day 
As with a brother and a friend I 

This man is freed from servile bands 

Of hope to rise, or fear to fall ; 
Lord of himself, though not of lands ; 

And having nothing, yet hath all. 

Upon the coffin plate was inscribed, — 
WILLIAM S. ROBINSON", 

" WAKKINGTOJf." 

Bom in Concord, Mass., Dec. 7, 1818. 

Died in Maiden, Mass., March 11, 1876. 

RE SURG AM. 

He had returned again to his birthplace. In the hollow 
behind the hill, where sleep the generations of his ancestors, 
and where he had played as a child, near the graves of his 
old schoolmates John and Henry Thoreau, and close to 



172 MEMOIR OF 

where Ilawtliorne lies, tender hands of old friends laid him 
down by the side of his little bo}". Twice winter has de- 
parted since he left us ; but his chained feet no spring can 
loose, and to mortal ken his 

" part in all the pomp that fills 
The circuit of the summer hills 
Is that his grave is green." 

Many heartfelt tributes to his memory were published by 
his brethren of the press. The following are selected from 
among them : — 

"One after another, the leaders of opinion in Massachusetts have 
been passing away since the close of the civil war, in which, through 
their steadfastness, and that of the people who stood behind them, 
our ancient Commonwealth became itself the leader of the whole 
countiy. John A. Andrew died first, in ISO" ; Charles Allen followed ; 
then Charles Sumner; next Henry Wilson; and now we must record 
the death of their friend and fellow-worker, from 1848 onward, 
through the antislavery struggle, the war period, and the years of re- 
construction, — William S. IiObixsox, the keen and honest journal- 
ist, the man of wit and conscience, who has for so many years in- 
structed and entertained the readers of ' The llepublican ' with his 
inimitable letters. It was for them that his best words were written, 
and to them he spoke long and wisely. If he did not always measure 
the full force of his words, if his wit sometimes went too far for 
justice to follow, he was yet, in the main, just, high-minded, and 
discriminating ; and no man was more free from that cankered vice of 
our times, — a self-seeking hypocrisy masked under professions of 
public service. He never committed nor connived at those easy sins 
of the politician by which the people are cheated and pillaged. He 
was sharp against knaves and fools, and sometimes against good men 
who had blundered over to •the wrong side; but he was never false to 
the great principles of popular government. Friendship was with 
him no excuse for public wrong or political errors. lie reproved the 
men who stood with him as faithfully as he fought against the other 
side. 

" Of the many conspicuous services which ' Warrington ' rendered 
to the cause of good government in Massachusetts, the greatest was, 
perhaps, his unsparing castigation of Butler in the memorable raid 
upon the governorship made by that person in 1871. 

" It was then that our satirist won his highest glory, and had the 
right to make his own that boast of the English poet so often quoted 
concerning him : — 



"WARRINGTON." 173 

' Yes, I am proud, I must be proud, to see 
]\Ien not afraid of God afraid of me ; 
Safe from the bar, the pulpit, aud the throne, 
Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone. 
O sacred weapon left for truth's defence, 
Sole dread of folly, vice, aiid insolence! 
KeverentI touch thee, but with honest zeal. 
To rouse the watchman of the pubUc weal.' 

" His character was formed in an old-fashioned New-Enghmd com- 
munity, and lacked some of the elements of culture; but he had 
disciplined himself to the work of a journalist, and had a right to the 
name of a literary man. He read many books, and read them well ; 
but he was still more versed in the knowledge that comes without 
books, from the study and companionship of men. He was an ency- 
cloptedia of political knowledge, especially concerning Massachusetts, 
in which he chiefly interested himself. He was a delightful compan- 
ion, and a warm friend ; loved and respected even by those whom 
he had publicly censured, if they happened to be persons who could 
themselves discriminate between wit and malice, between severity 
and slander." — F. B. Saxbokx, in Sprbvjfield Eejniblican. 

"Those who knew William S. Kobinson intimately will mourn him 
the most sincerely. He was a man who exemplified in a marked 
degree the true spirit of personal loyalty. He was neither a flatterer 
of a friend, nor an apologist for the errors of those he respected. He 
was frank to a fault ; and spoke his mind on jDaper and in conversa- 
tion with so much freedom, that he offended those who did not see 
that his motive was pure. It was in his nature to say sharp things ; 
but in his heart there was no bitterness. He was a critic without 
selfish piu-poses. He detested sham ; and he was at times, perhaps, 
misled by the shadow rather than the substance; and many of his 
criticisms upon men and motives were often modified. He gave 
severe political blpws; but he received the shots of his antagonists 
with Eoman firmness. Xo one can attribute to him, through the 
active years of a long political life, any base or unworthy intent. Had 
he sought influence and wealth, he would have trimmed his sails to 
catch more propitious gales ; but from boyhood to the grave he pre- 
ferred ' his independent tongue and pen ' to aught else that the world 
could bestow upon him. In his home, and amid that social life which 
he sought before his recent illness, he was the kind husband, consid- 
erate father, and genial friend. Many years will pass away before his 
memory will fade from the recollection of those who knew him when 
his mind was vigorous, and his shafts of wit were so potent and pier- 
cing to those who wore the armor of pretence aud bigotry." — W. W. 
Clapp, Boston Journal. 



174 MEMOIR OF 

" The last time we saw W. S. Robinson in health was on the 15th 
of November, 1872; and had any one then told us that we, his 
senior by four years, should survive him, we should have considered 
the assertion absurd; for, in the convei-sation we then had with him, 
he was as animated and as racy, as vigorous and as richly humorous, 
as we had found him in 1843, when we made his acquaintance. lie 
carried his fifty-four years well too, and bade as fair to learn what 
length of days means as any man whom we knew. There was, appar- 
ently, an amount of vitality in his constitution that did not admit 
of the thought that the calling of which he was so brilliant a mem- 
ber was so soon to lose him ; and we were much surprised, when, in 
1873, we heard of his illness. He had overworked himself ; he having 
been steadily employed from his boyhood, and seldom having known 
an interval of real rest. As a writer, we think there never was his 
superior in American journalism; and his equals might be counted 
on half the fingers. Many of his articles and letters are as good as 
those of Albany Fonblanque ; and a collection made from them, and 
properly edited, would be as good reading as can be found in Mr. 
Fonbianque's 'England under Seven Administrations.' It would, 
too, be a valuable contribution to the best materials for the history of 
American politics for the last thirty years, — an important considera- 
tion; for our political history perishes almost as fast as it is made, the 
chief cause of which is the lumbering character of most of the matter 
from which it should be written. But Mr. Ilobinson's contributions 
to that matter lie under no such reproach; for he brought to his 
work an amount and a variety of liumor such as it is very rare indeed 
to find in any man, and a trencliant wit that is still more rare; and 
his style was a combination of keenness and vigor that reminded 
readers of the French of Paul Louis Courier. Had he been so situ- 
ated as to be able to devote himself solely to the pursuit of letters, it 
is our firm belief that he would have won a permanent jjlace among 
the great humorists of Europe and America. He was a very rapid 
thinker and a quick worker, of which qualities his conversation 
afforded, from the necessity of the case, better evidence than could 
be afforded by his writings; for they miglit, for aught that the reader 
Imew, be painfully and laboriously elaborated : but such wl,s not the 
fact, as he wrote with ease, and never was at loss for either ideas or 
words. He could strike hard blows with both pen and tongue; but 
he preferred the use of sharp weapons to that of heavy weapons, 
skill to force. He v/as the Saiadin of his profession. Though not a 
learned man, — few journalists are learned men, — he was an uncom- 
monly well-read man; and his reading embraced those writo-s who 
are by common consent admitted to be first-class humorists, — Rabe- 
lais, Montaigne, Cervantes, Swift, Fielding, Sterne, Sydney Smith, and 
others. Scott he held to be as great in humor as in all other respects ; 



" WARRINGTON." 175 

and he placed him with Shakspeare. He was one of the early few 
who appreciated the genius of Hawthorne, With the literature of 
his own time he was very familiar ; and probably no other American 
knew better the writings of Dickens and Thackeray, and the higher 
order of those authoi's who may be said to be of the schools of those 
great masters. He was fond of works of fiction, among which, he 
would pleasantly say, he classed biographies, and books of travels. 
His miscellaneous reading was both extensive and various ; and as 
his mind was a wonderfully clear one, and his memory excellent, his 
reading's results were always available. He had not the slightest 
pedantry, being as free from that as he was from cant. In politics he 
was ever a liberal, and of the ultra stamp; always sympathizing with 
the oppressed, and aiding their cause to the extent of his powers and 
his opportunities. He did his part in the world well and nobly ; and 
now he has, like the good and faithful servant that he was, gone to 
that rest which is the best reward of an honest, an honorable, an in- 
dustrious, and a useful life." — C. C. Hazewell, Boston Traveller. 

" For twenty years he was an almost constant contributor to the 
columns of ' The Springfield Republican ; ' and his letters during the 
antislavery struggle were widely read and highly prized : in fact, 
they were the only fearless utterances in behalf of freedom found in 
any journal in this part of the State." — H. L. Burt, Springfield Tele- 
gram. 

"We are called upon, at last, to face the intelligence of a long- 
dreaded event. William S. Eobinson is dead. I saw him in his 
coflSn; and he had more his old aspect than I had recognized in him 
for two years. The unnatural marks that his disease had brought 
appeared to have all faded away since life had departed. I was 
impressed with a massive beauty in his brow which I had never 
before appreciated. His brave heart has ceased to beat; his active 
and acute mind has ended its earthly work. The labors of his life 
are over. He is lost to that public whom he so faithfully and so 
courageously served, and to those friends, who, knowing the kindli- 
ness of character and the strongly sympathetic nature that underlaid 
his keenly critical temperament, ardently loved the man. 

" If ever a true man, in the broadest sense of the term, lived, it was 
he. Nothing was able to shake the absolute fidelity to conviction 
that was so distinguishing a trait of his character. In an age of 
servility among politicians, he never faltered : he was never even 
tempted. Few men needed money more. He began the world poor, 
and a large portion of his experience in it was a struggle with pov- 
erty. Money was open to him, not as a reward of dishonesty, — for no 
man ever dreamed of offering to him a money-bribe, — but as the 



176 MEMOIR OF 

fruit of conformity to the opinions of tlie hour. His pen was a power 
that was wortli tlie purchase of any party : tlie rewards of office an(jl 
of poj.ition that might have been claimed by him who wielded it, it 
would be difficult to over-estimate. He had not to sacrifice any thing 
that most men would have regarded as essential, either: he had 
merely to accede to the prejudices of the hour among those with 
whom, in most points, he was in agreement. His sturdy sense of 
rectitude entertained not the thought for a moment. He continually 
risked such favors of fortune as came to him by his faithfulness to 
what he felt to be absolute truth. Ordinary politicians regarded his 
temerity with amazement. It is to their credit, liowever, that they 
respected an exhibition of manliness which they found it difficult to 
comprehend. He held the position, for many years, of clerk of a 
House of Kepresentatives which he constantly criticised with merci- 
less severity; and he lost it, at last, after partisanship had so depre- 
ciated the composition of that body as to elect to it men a majority 
of whom were capable of censuring Charles Sumner, while they 
refused to express disapprobation of the Credit Mobilier frauds in 
Congress. 

" While, perhaps, the fearless independence of Mr. Eobinson was 
his most distinguishing quality, — a quality in which he was equalled 
only by Charles Sumner among those of the same generation in 
public life, — he possessed, also, a power as a writer that would have 
attracted attention to him in any era of our annals. His knowledge 
of the political history of the country was very thorough ; and he had 
enjoyed the friendship and acquaintance of almost all the distin- 
guished men of his own State with whom he was contemporary. He 
was unsurpassed in shrewdness of observation ; he had a logical 
strength that was proof against almost any possible flaw in arguments 
in which he enlisted ; his pungency in statement was so conspicuous 
as to pass into a proverb; and his wit was of the keenest character. 
It was used unsparingly in some instances, and it scathed without 
stint those who came within the sphere of his censure ; but we do 
not believe even its victims ever doubted the honesty that impelled 
either his sarcasm or his scorning. There was never personal ani- 
mosity beneath it. lie saw farther beneath the surface of character 
than do most men ; and he had a lordly hatred of wrong, and still 
more strikingly an intolerant spirit towards humbug, that would not 
bo repressed. He must find expression for what seemed to him in 
need of rebuke. Friend as well as foe came under his condemnation, 
if he felt their action deserved it. Those who best knew him will- 
ingly submitted to his strictures. They learned to know it as only a 
faithful frankness, that never spared the utterance of truth because 
of personal sympathy. 

" Were Mr. liobinson living, no man would more scorn indiscrimi- 



"WARRINGTON." 177 

nating eulogy than himself; yet we use the language of only simple 
justice when we say that few men of clearer brain, nobler heart, and 
purer purjiose, have lived in this generation than him to whom this 
most inadequate tribute of a fervent friendship is paid." — G. H. 
Monroe, Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. 

Bishop Gilbert Haven, his friend and townsman, wrote 
in " The Independent," — 

"The memory of many rich hours in 'Warrington's' society 
stimulates this tribute. Shall not the spring flowers scattered on his 
couch to-day in Sleepy Hollow by the liberal and loving hand of his 
Creator be accompanied by a few equally natural, and not artificial, 
though of little worth, yet vitalized by love ? In a great war, the sol- 
diers that win fame are not always the fighters. The sharpshooter 
that dropped many a gunner at his post, and by his steady and sure 
shots picked off the officers, was often unnoticed in the gazette, and 
even unknown to the commander. Yet, but for his perilous and per- 
sistent aim, the day had gone to the enemy. So in life's great field of 
battle, whether of the Church or of less reforms, the real fighter is 
not always the most prominent. The man that wins the battle for 
Christ and humanity may never wear the general's buttons; but he is 
none the less the real general. 

" It seems natural to think thus when the sharpest, steadiest, 
truest journalist in all the mighty battle for freedom passes away 
with a dozen or less sketches in the daily press, a page long, and a 
score or two of minor notices, as his only requiem. Mr. Whipple finds 
room for laudation of a journalist or two in his BiograpMa Literaria 
of the century, but fails to remember this most swift and sure of them 
all. Yet none the less for that omision will he be remembered. In 
the chosen few who waged to the end the glorious strife, his name 
will stand among the highest. His gifts were as peculiar as any of 
his fellows. They were his own. He was not a philosophic thinker, 
poet, politician, statesman, nor even editor; though many of the ele- 
ments of the highest order of statesman, politician, poet, philosoi^her, 
and editor, entered into his composition. He was pre-eminently the 
political letter-writer. No such shaft fled from any other bow as those 
his arm discharged. They were deadly, but never venomous. His 
arrows were sharp in the hearts of the king's enemies. 

" This work was not executed in malice, but, in his own conscience, 
undoubtedly, with the highest sense of duty. He was only testing 
every man's work of what sort it was. Like Soci-ates, he was trying 
it, not to show himself, but itself. He never dwelt long on one he 
blamed or praised. He flew from flower to flower, extracting poison 
as delightedly as balm. His religious views were anti-orthodox, as 



178 MEMOIR OF 

might have been expected from his birthplace. He drank at the same 
fountain as his follow-townsinen, Emerson and Thorcau, of the 
former of whom he was always a reverent admirer. Of course, such 
a culture is far from Christian; and Christian truth never seized upon 
his soul. His writings were never touched by that light supernal: 
they were 'of the eartli, earthy;' though that earth was polished 
marble and precious stones. He was bewrayed too, by this defect, into 
too loose ideas of liberty, not in himself, — for a maiden purity was 
his lifelong trait, — but in society. Like Gov. Andrew, he got so deep 
in love with liberty, that he did not always discern its true metes and 
bounds. Mill's wild liberty, which was license and lawlessness, 
infatuated this seer and sayer. Yet even here were limitations ; and 
the free-love abominations of the hour found no more stinging foe 
tlian in his piercing pen. 

"His life was faithful according to its early light. Few men have 
ever lived who more completely verified the portrait of the poet's 

poet, — 

' Dowered with the hate of hate, the sconi of scorn, 
The love of love.' 

His prejudices were sometimes his idols, which he worshipped as 
gods. His career is a stimulus and a guide to truthful journalism. 
He should be copied by the hundreds that control our press in hon- 
esty and integrity. If they lack his capacity, they will, after their 
measure, be lionored and successful. Other evils which his pen never 
attacked yet remain. Let his conscientious zeal against what he 
accounted wrong stimulate every seeker of life-fame to a like honora- 
ble warfare: so will 'Warrington' be not a vanishing name, but a 
growing power in all the myriads of those who wield the mighty force 
of the press of to-day and to-morrow." 

It is fitting that woman, in whom he believed, and for whose 
elevation he labored, should be permitted to lay chaplets of 
remembrance upon " Warrington's " grave. Mar}- Clcnimer 
(in " The Independent ") wrote thus of him : — 

" There are faces, just to think of which, shut away in the darkness 
of the grave, from the glory of the world and the loving glances of 
their kind, is enough to make one shudder. 

"As I trace these lines in memory of one I love, I feel impelled to 
lay a little leaf of praise on the new-made grave of one I never saw. 
I want to pay my tribute to the memory of William S. Robinson, if 
only from the fact that he belonged to that order of men, who, of all 
men in our country, are intellectually the most unselfish, who give 
the most lavishly, and receive, iu return, the most abuse and the least 



' ' WARRING TON. " 1 79 

reward. There are irresponsible persons, who lilve to call them- 
selves journalists, who make much undue mischief, no doubt; and 
their words were worthy the moral calibre of the men who last week, 
in the Senate, denounced all journalists as belonging to this class. 
Nevertheless, the fact remains, that there are many men, and a few 
women, who, turning from the allurements of letters as an art, pour 
their rich gifts without ceasing into the bottomless abyss of the daily 
press. Their rich vitality of brain and heart, consumed hour by hour 
in the columns of a daily newspaper, leaves no enduring trace in 
the world of art by which to build a monument to their name. 
They rarely live to be old ; and, when suddenly struck down in what 
should have been their prime, the mighty critic calmly records, 
' Only a journalist, — a mere newspaper-writer. He has written noth- 
ing that can endure.' No niche, however obscure, is left for him in 
'The History of American Literature.' No less the seed of his 
thought is blown to the world : it blooms, and bears fruit, in the men- 
tal life of his generation. He is the maker and master of opinion; 
he is the kindler and quickener of ideas; he is the defender and 
stronghold of principle ; he is the martyr of thought and of toil, cut 
down at his post, and with the utmost alacrity forgotten. No thought- 
ful person could have read the letters of ' Warrington ' in ' The 
Springfield Republican' for the last decade without feeling that in 
themselves they were an education. ' Junius ' never wrote more 
absolutely 'to the point.' You might differ none the less that you 
knew they were wise, prophetic, and illuminated with that calm, clear 
intelligence, that breadth of mental outlook, that amounts to an 
added sense, — a second sight. 

"I am no haunter of graveyards: but I went to Mount Auburn, 
where Charles Sumner rests, on the hilltop, facing the rising sun, 
with a vision of Claude-like beauty at his feet, that must have given 
joy to his living eyes; I went to Sleepy Hollow, where Thoreau 
and Hawthorne lie ; and the thought of these three sleepers was fuller 
companionship than can be often found amid the living. On a tree- 
shaded hilltop overlooking the sunny meadows of Concord is Tho- 
reau's grave: its discolored headstone seems to tell that this offspring 
of Nature has been returned back into the elements again; that 
' earth that nourished him ' has claimed ' his growth, to be resolved 
to earth again-.' On the opposite side of the path, a headstone a 
few inches high has inscribed upon it 'Nathaniel Hawthorne,' — no 
more; and a few steps farther on is the green plot that waits the form 
of Emerson, when that serene spirit shall take on immortality. In 
this high company, the comrades of his youth, in this place of peace, 
they have laid down the body of the tired journalist. His name may 
be ' writ in water ; ' but his essence survives in indestructible things. 
Vale, vale I " 



180 MEMOIR OF "WARRINGTON:" 

Many kind messages were received, all bearing the same 
tribute of love and reverence for the dear dead friend. 

" I wish I could recall the words of Dr. Bartol commemorative of 
Mr. Robinson. They were too good and fresh to be forgotten. I 
think you could not fail to have been made glad for that past true and 
noble life, and comforted at the hour when your beloved was at rest 
from his labors, lying in his pleasant, sunny library, among his 
friends. I had never thought ' Warrington's ' pen too sharp, and 
liave always rejoiced and confided in it." II. W. 

"Every just and good cause has lost a fearless champion, and there 
is one less good man on earth." M. F. W. 

" When an earnest, whole-souled man is taken out of this world, I 
have another argument that immortality is real. It cannot be that 
all the zeal, the ripe thought, the earnest purpose, and the spirit that 
worked only for good results, is suddenly stopped, to work and Hve 
no more forever. Life would indeed be a farce if this were true." 

E. S. 

In reviewing or summing up the character of a man, there 
is a side not often touched upon, — the side that women know. 
It was the good fortune of " Warrington's " wife to be able 
to read and listen to the estimates of his character, and make 
no mental reservations. His life always illustrated those 
principles of purity and steadfastness that his eloquent pen 
advocated. If the suggestions of such a life teach even a 
few of his countrymen, that to be a leader of parties and the 
people means something besides office-liolding, worldly case, 
and advancement, his biography will not have been written 
in vain. 



''WARRINGTON" PEN-PORTRAITS. 



"A man is not to be reA'erenced before the truth; and 
therefore I will speak out." 

Socrates in Plato's " licpnbUc." 



" WAEEINGTON " -PEN-POETEAITS. 



CHAPTER I. 
THE FREE-SOIL PAETY.i 



[Worcester, Wednesday night, June 28, 1848.] 
THE WORCESTER CONVENTION.^ 

Mr. Giddings finished the speech he began in the after- 
noon, and was followed b}- Rev. Mr. Lovejoy of Cambridge 
(Libert}'"), who made a verj' effective speech. He spoke a 
little against Van Buren, but coupled Hale and Giddings 
together, and bi'ought out a great shouting. I am writing in 
the hall, which is crowded. The enthusiasm, as 3-ou editors 
say, is " tremendous." It beats the daytime out and out. 

Charles F. Adams next spoke, and cut in sharp and keen, 
but with more good-nature than usual. Just now he is 
scorning those who voted for the War Bill, and has jerked out 
two or three sentences quite in the style of his father. The 
speakers say a good deal about " the late Whig party." 
Query : Will it be too late for supper next November, or 
not? 

1 Tlie Free-Soil party -was, as its name denotes, the party of freedom 
and antislavery, and contained the radical elements of the Whigs and 
the Democrats, and absorbed the Liberty pai-ty. 

2 This was "Warrington's" lirst letter to the Springfield Republican. 
He wrote no other for that paper until 185(3, when he assumed the nom 
deplume of " Warrington." 

3 The Libcrttj partij were the Simon-pure antislavery men; not the 
Garrisonians, for they did not believe in voting. 

183 



184 " WARRINGTON: " 

Giddings made a good hit in his speech. He said he liked 
a good Democrat rather better than he did a good "Whig 
(cheers from the Loco' section) ; "for," he added slowl}', 
" the vahie of an article is greatlj"- enhanced b}' its rarit}'." 
It was the Whigs' turn to shout now ; and the}' didn't do 
an}- thing else. Ver^' fair, wasn't it? C. F. Adams has 
just said the Whig part}' is so corrupt, that it is in the condi- 
tion of one who is not to be believed on oath. Said he, " I 
am free of it. I am ready to go forward in this movement." 
He closed with the old words, " Live, or die," &c. ; and the 
cheering was the loudest you ever heard. 

Sumner followed, and is now talking. His speech is a 
thing of shreds, and happy ; pretty much as his speeches 
commonly are. It has considerable effect. He compared 
the slave power to the Bastille : whereupon James Buffum 
of Lynn sang out, "The Bastille is a gentleman compared 
to it." General laugh, of course; though where's the 
wit? 

Sumner is going into the heroics, Thermopylae, «S:c. 
J. S. Eldrcdge is clapping; P^lizur Wright, ditto: but I 
think it is rather deep for common folks. He read a letter 
from E. L. Ilamlin of Cleveland, 0., who says that all was 
union and enthusiasm at the Columbus Free-Soil Convention ; 
that it was the largest since 1840 ; that the State Liberty 
Convention met the next day, but did little besides ratify 
the proceedings of the People's Convention ; and that the 
Reserve will give twenty thousand majority for the Buffalo 
nomination. 

The enthusiasm of the meeting is rising under Sumner's 
finely-turned and lamp-smelling periods. It is up to fever- 

1 Locofoco. The Locofoco party, so called, was the radical portion of 
the Democrats. At a meeting at Taiiinuiny Hall, the radical and the 
conservative Democrats quarrelled; and, at a most important moment 
in the debate, the conservative portion caused the gas to be turned off, 
leaving the hall in darkness; but the radicals produced their locofoco, 
or lucifer matches (as friction matches were then called), and relighted 
the hall at once- In derision, they were called Loco/ocos; but they 
proudly assumed the name. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 185 

heat at least. He sa^'s the war debt is a hundred and eighty 
million dollars. Isn't this setting it rather too high? 

Elizur Wright has just burst out with an anti-tariff inter- 
lude, agreeably diversifying the scene. 

Suinner is apparentfy closing, and is piling it up on the 
young men. He does up the transcendentalism of politics 
ver^' well ; but would he make a good vote-distributer ? 
He is done ; and calls resound for Edward L. Ke3'es, who 
comes forward, after a personal explanation from Elizur 
"Wright, receives three nice cheers, and speaks well. 

E. R. Hoar followed in a fu'st-rate speech. He saj's he 
knows that Mr. Webster gives his cordial sympathy and 
respect to all who are in this movement, and that he has 
never aided in the Taylor movement in any degree. 

RESOLUTION PASSED AT WORCESTER JUNE 28, 1848. 

^'•Resolved, That Massachusetts wears no chains, and 
spurns all bribes. Massachusetts goes now, and will ever go, 
for free soil and free men, for free lips and a free press, for 
a free land and a free loorld." ^ 

[Boston Daily Eepublican, Oct. 5, 1848.] 
RUFUS CHOATE ON TAYLOR. 

The Taylor party will sacrifice the Wilmot Proviso in 
Congress, just exactly as they did in the Convention at Phila- 
delphia, if it is necessary to their success. 

With Rufus Choate, politics, like law, constitutes an ex- 
ercise of the faculties of reasoning and imagination solely. 
To get a murderer acquitted upon a plea of somnambulism, 
or to get a president made by a process which will betray 
libert}^ with a kiss, is simply a trial of refined skill : it is 
nothing else. The people might listen as a jury would 
listen, all the while taking in an intoxicating draught, until 
the moral perception had become so completely blunted, that 
the individuals would be read}' to consider murder and arson 

1 "Written by " Warrington," who was Secretary of tlie Convention. 



186 " WARRINGTON: " 

quite equivalent to Arcadian simplicity and virtue, and fraud 
and trcacher}' no worse than truth and honest}- ; and all this 
would be, doubtless, held to be fair, 2^^'ovided it succeeds : 
but, unfortunately, there is a stern and calm tribunal remain- 
ing behind, at which the tricks of magicians, whether legal 
or political, do not avail, and where a single grain of truth, 
however infinitesimally small, outweighs a whole universe of 
error. 

Mr. Choate's argument at Salem in behalf of Gen. Tay- 
lor, like his argument in behalf of Tirrell, told well at the 
time ; but who that knows right from wrong will ever be 
able to look back upon eitlier, and praise the moral nature of 
the malcer? 

[Boston Daily Republican, October, 1848.] 
GEN. TAYLOR AS TUE CANDIDATE OF THE LADORING-MAN. 

It Avill be well for the lahoring-men to tiiink of these 
things, — the tillers of the soil, the mechanics, the manufac- 
turers. Is it altogether the best tliinrj they can do to give 
their votes for a man, who, when he Avants an agriculturist, 
buys him ; when he Avants a blacksmith, buys him, pays seve- 
ral hundred dollars for him, uses him as long as he pleases, 
and then sells him again? Is the laborer of the Northern 
Free States likel}- to advance the cause of the laborer ever}'- 
where, likely to increase the " dignity of labor," which they 
talk so much about, by casting a vote for this Zachar^- Ta3dor? 

Ilosea Biglow somewhere remarks, — 

" Folks that make black slaves of iii<5;;ers 
Want to make wliite slaves of you." 

This is true. The man who buys Peter and Jack and Nelson, 

— black men, — to work and die for him, Avould just as 
readily buy Johnson and Thompson, and Smith and Jones, 

— ichite men, — if hr. could do so. "What sort of a president 
is this for a free republic of laboring-men ? 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 187 

[Lowell American, December, 1849.] 
THE PARTY OF FREEDOM. 

There is one party, tliank Heaven, that has only one face ; 
and that is the Free-Soil part}-. Their object is undisguised. 
David Wilmot, Charles Allen, Joshua K. Giddings, and their 
associates, are understood : their fellow-members know pre- 
cisel}- where the}- are, and what the}' demand. They are for 
freedom ; they avow it ; they pledge themselves to it at all 
times ; they ask and expect no favor from men pledged to 
the other side : if they vote for or against a man or a meas- 
ure, it is that freedom may triumph, not party. 

No man is allowed to represent their position as different 
from what it is : there is no need of it ; for every man, 
North and South, East and West, knows what they are, and 
what they want. 

[Lowell American, April 22, 1850.] 
THE CLAY COMPROMISE.^ 

Henry Clay is the man who is principally responsible for 
this mischief. Foote might have blustered ; Webster might 
have apostatized : but, without Clay's management, the thing 
could not have succeeded. Something like half a million 
of people, more or less, in these United States, think that 
they were begotten by Henry Clay, and must implicitly obey 
or reverently follow him. Every word he speaks, every act 
he performs, is received by them with loud acclaim : Clay is 
infallible ; Clay can do no wrong. His position as a quasi 
friend of emancipation in Kentucky has helped him in his 
diabolical scheme of compromise. He has taken advantage 
of the sentiments of his followers to give the victory to the 

1 Henry Clay was the " great compromiser." His three most impor- 
tant compromises were, 1st, tlie Missouri, in 1S20; 2il, tlie Tariff, in 1833; 
3d, the California or "Omnibus" Compromise, in 1850, so called because 
it contained or held several others, the most conspicuous one being the 
Fugitive-slave Law, which occupied a front seat. This was Mr. Clay's 
last compromise, because, as C. C. Haze\\ ell said, " he died shortly 
after; and there is no comiiromise with death." 



188 "WAItltlNGTOX:" 

slaveholders. Professing in loud-sounding language that 
he would never vote to extend slavery another inch, it is hi^ 
action, more than that of all others, which will give slaverj' 
a victor}' in this dcadl}' contest. We humbly suggest that it 
is about time for the people of the North .to stop idolizing 
this arch-devil of the whole conspiracy'. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 189 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FUGITIVE-SLA^rE LAW. 

[Lowell Auiericau, Oct. 23, 1850.] 
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 

The laio itself is infamous, and not the interpretation of it. 
Those who made the law are responsible, and not those par- 
ticularly who are willing to enforce it ; though these last are 
bad enough. It is Webster, and Fillmore, and Eliot, and 
Hibbard, and Peaslee, and other Whigs and Democrats who 
sanctioned the law, that are to be held responsible for it. 
Will anybody pretend that Fillmore is not properh' classed ? 
Antislavcr}' Whigs, how does j'our president look, packed 
(like the centre-mackerel in a close-packed barrel) between 
Clay, Cass, Dickinson, Webster, Foote, and Houston? — 
slaveholders or doughfaces, every one of them. 

It is THE LAW which ouglit to be anathematized, — 
Webster's law, which he agreed to support "to the fullest 
extent ; " Fillmore's law, which he " approved ; " the law of 
the AVhig and Democratic slaveholders and doughfaces who 
passed it, or dodged so that it might be passed : it is " the 
law" which must be repealed, and which must be resisted 
until it is repealed. 

[Lowell American, Nov. 8, 1850.] 
THE MAN-STEALING LAW : HOW SHALL WE CONDEMN IT ? 

One of the citizens of Lowell who went to Canada during 
the panic which immediatel}' followed the passage of the 
slave-catchino; law has returned. He is in doubt whether it 



190 "WA nnixG Tox .- • ' 

is safe for liiin to remain here. If he cannot live here, he 
Avill go to England. 

Just think of it, if you have patience to think of any 
thing. Here is a 3"oung man of good appearance, scarce!}' 
a shade blacker than the arch-devil Webster, \\ho is at the 
head of the man-stealing conspirac}' ; well-behaved, capable 
of earning a good living, and in all respects as good a 
citizen as the average of men in the community. lie has 
committed no crime. Crime ! — he has shown himself to be 
worthy of liberty and equal citizenship b}' taking himself 
out of slavery into a land of freedom. lie took no man's 
property when he fled. The legs upon which he walked were 
his own, and not his master's; the tongue with which he 
spoke, the eyes and ears with which he saw and heard, were 
bis own, and not any other man's. He is guilty of no crime ; 
3'et, by the law of the land, he is liable to be seized at any 
moment, hurried before a commissioner, and, Avithout a trial, 
sent back into the hell from which he escaped ! 

Is not this monstrous? Will men endure it, — men with 
hearts in their bosoms, men with Bibles in their dwellings, 
men pretending to be believers in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and the Sermon on tlie Mount? We will not 
believe it. 

[Lowell American, Nov. 22, I80O.] 
"CONQUERING PREJUDICES." 

Daniel Webster advised the people to "conqner their 
prejudices." The}' have been remarkabh* successful in 
doing so. The Whig party held power in this State mainly 
because people were prejudiced in its favor ; but, it having 
become Websterized, the people conquered their prejudices 
in its favor, and voted it out of power. 

.There were prejudices of thirty years' standing in favor of 
Daniel Webster ; but when he set the peoi)le the example of 
conquering what were supposed to be his inveterate preju- 
dices against slavery, and went in for the support of that 
institution, the people conquered their pn^judices in his 



PEN-P OR TRAITS. .191 

favor, and cast him out in disgrace. These are cheering 
instances of success in conquering prejudices ; and we hope 
Mr. Webster will be pleased with the docility and aptness of 
his pupils. 

[Lowell American, Feb. 21, 1851.] 
EESCUE OF SHADRACH. 

We rejoice with joy unspeakable that the black men of 
Boston had the courage and humanit)^ to attempt and 
successfully' carry through that rescue, in spite of the majesty 
of law with which the United-States bloodhound commis- 
sioner had clothed himself. It was a glorious event, — the 
most glorious event that Boston has honored herself with 
for many j-ears. The two hundred "niggers" who rushed 
into the court-room on Saturday, and bore Shadrach into 
libert}', have given an honorable name to Boston, which not 
even the Toryism of Webster, Choate, Curtis, Hallett, and 
Co., can make the people forget. That rescue will be cited 
fifty years hence, yes, twenty 3-ears hence, as one of the chief 
glories of Boston ; while the memoiy of the Tories who 
clamor against it shall rot in oblivion. 

Who are the " leading men " who are so indignant at the 
violation of law? State-street brokers and Milk-street 
jobbers who got up a ' ' ten-cent ' ' rebellion against the 
sub-treasury law, and would have been glad to see the 
post-offlce mobbed for requiring specie payments ; men who 
hold mortgages on slave-propert}', and some of whom, quite 
likely, are guilty of being concerned in slave-trading ; men 
who mobbed Garrison in 1835, and Thompson in 1850, and 
who have rejoiced at every proslavery outrage for the last 
twenty years ; men who sanctioned the annexation of Texas 
and the Mexican war, because new markets were thereby 
opened ; men who, with the most submissive temper, have 
seen their own seamen imprisoned in South Carolina, and 
have rejoiced at the mob-law which sent IMr. Hoar home to 
Massachusetts, because they dared not disturb the good 
understanding between the planters and the manufacturers, 



192 "WARRINGTON:" 

— these are the men Avho are so struck with horror at the 
proceedings of an "African mob," which, actuated b}' a 
sentiment which docs honor to human nature, gallantly seized 
a brother from the chitches of slaver3-, and sent him to a 
land of freedom; 

Even now thej- are rejoicing because the grog-shop gradu- 
ates of Springfield have hung in cffig}' an English gentleman^ 
whose onl}' offence is speaking against the darling institution 
of slaver}', as he has spoken against slavery of ever^' form 
at home. Is not the testimony of these men in favor of the 
supremacy of the law a ver}- valuable testimony ? 

[Lowell American, April 14, 1851.] 
HUMILIATIOX OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

The unconstitutional and infam'ous enactment of a congress 
of drunkards, swindlers, and doughfaces, has triumphed not 
onl}' over the conscience and the opinion, but over the consti- 
tution and laws, of INlassachusetts. The law of 1813, forbid- 
ding State officers to aid in kidnapping, has been opeilh', boldl}', 
and knowingly violated b}' Boston officers, under the orders of 
the ma^'or and the State-street power behind the mayor ; and 
even the criminal process of the State has been suspended by 
the corrupt advice of the State and District attorneys. 

For eight days, the criminal laws of Massachusetts were par- 
alyzed and abrogated hy the claim of a Georgia slaveholder 
to his " propert}'." Slavery is stronger to-da}' in Massa- 
chusetts than it is in Georgia ; for in Georgia the claim of 
the owner would have to give wa}' to the criminal process, 
while in this State the criminal process yields to the [)roperty 
claim. 

A man found in Massachusetts,'^ and claiming to be one of 

1 George Thompson. 

2 George T. Curtis yesterday issuett a warrant against Alfred Sims, a 
fugitive from Savannah, on tlie application of Seth J. Thomas, the 
lej;al pimp of the slave-catchers. Poliie-Oflicer Asa O. Bufman was 
considered the stanchest hound for tlie operation of runninj? down 
the fugitive; and tlie business waa coniUled to him in connection with 



PElSr-POETRAITS. 193 

its citizens, is seized hy an offlcei", who acts in violation of 
law, upon a lying accusation of theft ; is hurried before a 
tribunal unlvnown to the Constitution ; is refused a jury trial ; 
and, upon the oaths of two or three men who are b}^ their 
profession scoundrels, is carried off into slaver3^ All sorts 
of tricks unauthorized b}' the law — volunteer acts of infamy 
(such as the trumpery process issued by Ilallett to contravene 
the criminal process of the State) — are resorted to, to carry 
this inoffending man into perpetual bondage, to subject him 
to a life of unrequited toil, diversiQed only with the exercise 
of the whip and the branding-iron. 

Who has done this? Not Massachusetts? No. The 
humiliation belongs to Massachusetts ; but the infamy be- 
longs to Boston alone. The chained court-house, the mili- 
tarj' array, the extraordinary police-force by night and day, 
— these things show that it was only with great difficulty 
that even in Boston the law could be enforced : nowhere else 
in the State would there have been the least prospect of suc- 
cess. It is onl}' in the midst of a corrupt public sentiment 
that such an infamous law can be enforced ; and the country 
is sound to the core on this question. 

Perhaps it is too sweeping to say that Boston is responsi- 
ble for this. It is a combination of the money and the 

augur-hole Byrnes, whose teeth it was feared might give out. Another 
hound, named Sleeper, was also engaged. Butman and Sleeper about 
six o'clock discovered Sims and another negro walking along Ann 
Street. Butman and Sleeper fastened their fangs to him; and the 
negroes showed fight. In the struggle, Butman was stabbed, — one 
account says in the groin, another paper says in the leg, — but whether 
in one of his hind-legs or fore-legs does not appear. 

Having made the grab, the hounds forced their prisoner into a 
carriage, and drove off to the coTirt-house. Another struggle took place 
here; but the fugitive was safely secured. Thomas Sims, the alleged 
fugitive, was brought up before Commissioner Curtis on Friday. Seth 
J. Thomas appeared for the claimant; and It. Rantoul, jun., Charles 
G. Loring, and S. E. Sewall, for the prisoner. Court Square presented 
an exciting scene. There were many people in the neighborhood. 
Chains were placed round the court-house; and Judge Shaw and Judge 
Wells were obliged to craid under the chain in order to get into the 
court-house. — W. S. R in Lowell American, April 3, 1831. 



194 "WARRINGTON:" 

Websterism of Boston which is responsible, — the corrupting 
political influence of the most corrupt politician that ever 
cursed the countr}- with his presence, combined with the base 
love of gain, which would sacrifice all law, and all conscience, 
and all liberty-, for the profits of slaA'cholding trade. It is the 
fifteen hundred '■^respectable men," who, according to Tuke}-, 
volunteered to aid in carrying Sims back into slavery, who have 
done this. Their money corrupted the pulpit and the press ; 
their political influence controlled the cit}' authorities, and 
placed the laws of the State at defiance, that John B. Bacon 
miglitcarr}- off his "nigger." Oh, what a triumph of Web- 
ster- Whigger^- ! "What a victory of cotton over the conscience 
of the people ! 

[Lowell American, April 25, 1851.] 
ELECTIOX OF CHARLES SUMXEK.^ 

Glad, inspiring, invigorating news is that which we publish 
to-da}-. Charles Sumxer is chosen senator for six j'cars 
from Massachusetts. An able, eloquent, and, what is better, 
a true, honest, and pure man, is chosen to represent the 
people of the State. Is that all? No. The triumph of one 
man, however able and honest, is next to nothing. The 
great triumph is in this, that the principles of the old Com- 
monwealth have been re-asserted and vindicated after a year 
of darkness and doubt cast over them b}- the great treachery 
of the 7th of INIarch, 1850. The honor of the State is 

1 Mr. Snmner -was elected on the twenty-sixth ballot; and there 
were twenty-six candidates, including Mr. Sumner. Their names 
were, — 

Charles Sumner, Boston; R. C. "Winthrop, Boston; H. H. Childs, 
Pittsfield; Pliny Merrick, "Worcester; Isaac Davis, ^yorcester; R. Ilan- 
toiil, jun., Beverly; G. S. Boutwell, Groton; S. C. Phillips, Salem; Ben- 
jamin F. Hallett, Boston; G. N. Bripjgs, Pittsfield; John Mills, Spring- 
field; Samuel Hoar, Concord; J. H. Briggs, Nantucket; Caleb Cusliiug, 
Newbury; Fr. Coggswell, Bedford; 11. "W. Bishop, Lenox; Isaac O. 
Barnes, Boston; D. Ilenshaw, Leicester; S. A. Eliot, Boston; S. D. 
Bradford, Koxbury; A. Walker, North Brooklield; N. P. Banks, jun., 
Waltham; G. P. Osgood, Andover; A. Nettleton, Chicopee; Charles 
Allen, Worcester; Horace Mann, Newton. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 195 

sustained : her banner is again borne aloft by a strong 
hand. 

This is one of the great retributive events whicli make an 
era in a State, showing that the people are stronger than 
any man, or clique of men ; showing that the people have 
principles j-et, and are not to be led from them hy any man, 
however great, or however much he has been trusted. It is 
in this view that the election of Charles Sumner is a great 
event, worth more than a score of presidential victories 
carried by accident, by a popiilar hurrah, or by a conceal- 
ment of party issues. 



[Lowell American, Aug. 1, 1851.] 
THE JUVENILE MOVEMENT FOR MK. WEBSTER. 

"We have already mentioned the fact, that sixt}- of the boys 
at Groton Academy' have signed a paper signifj'ing that they 
believe Mr. Webster to be the great defender and expounder 
of the Constitution and Union, and that thej^ desire that he 
shall be our next President. Dear little fellows ! that is all 
they can do for the expounder ; the law not allowing them to 
vote for several years to come. We hear that this juvenile 
movement is not confined to the schools. It is spontaneously 
spreading into the nurseries. The cradles and cribs resound 
with the praise of Webster ; and man}- an occupant of a 
high-chair wields his rattle with vigor in enforcing his claims 
to the presidency. We are permitted to publish the follow- 
ing paper, which has been signed by a large number of spon- 
taneous young babies in one of our most fasliionable neigh- 
borhoods : — 

" The sub-scrib-bers, itty babies, liv-ing in Low-ell, here-by sig-ni-fy 
to onr faders and our muzzers, that we con-sid-cr Daii-il Webster, 
who made the Spell-lng-book, the best man for the Pres-i-dent of the 
U-ni-ty Tates. We un-ner-tand that he was a good itty boy, and is 
now a great big man, hav-lng pre-served his con-sti-tu-tion by the 
free use of cold water all his days, aid-ed by fre-qucnt and co-pi-ous 
draughts from the pub-lie teat. This cx-am-ple we f ol-low ; cold wa-ter 



196 " WARIilNGTON: " 

and titty being our chief siip-port. And we there-foie hope all itty 
babies will be Wigs, and sup-port the Ex-pound-er of these priu-ci-ple!s. 
We fling our di-a-pers to the breeze, and huz-za for Web-stei', the 
baby's choice." 

(Signed by) Jack IIorxer. Johxxt Bkowit. 

Tot E. Wiggins. Kitty Peaslee. 

Sis xVustix. Cally Sampson. 

BuBB IIawley. Geokgy Brimmer, and 

SuNY Perkixs. SLxty-five others. 



[Lowell American, June 23, 1852.] 
political death of daxiel wedster. 

Daniel Webster — there is a political end to him, thank 
God! In the language of the elder Mr. Weller, "He has 
been took at last with that ere unawoidable fit of the staggers 
as we must all come to, and has gone off his feed forever." 
" I see him," continued Mr. Weller, " getting every journey 
more and more groggy. I saj's to Samivcl, saj'S I, ' Sami- 
vel, m}- boy, the Gray's a-going at the knees ; ' and now my 
predilection is fatally werified. And him as I never could 
do enough to serve, or to show m}- likin' for, is up the great 
universal spout o' natur." In the same spirit. State Street 
laments the political demise of Webster. 

But there are hundreds of thousands of men who will 
rejoice at his downfall as in that of an enem}' of the human 
race. On the 7th of March, 1850, he sold himself, and sold 
Massachusetts and the North, and has ever since been lead- 
ing on what Rantoul calls a " national slave-hunt." All 
his speeches, all his letters, all his conversations, have had 
this one object, — the securing of slavehoUling support for 
the presidenc}' by his zeal and alacrity in catching runaway 
slaves. He made the Fugitive-slave Law, and he has exe- 
cuted it. He has carried terror and dismay into thousands 
of innocent families. He has entered upon a new war against 
the hunted and peeled victims of Southern oppression, and 
has urged on the blootUiouuds to seize, and carry back into 



PEN-PORTBAITS. 197 

hopeless bondage, men born as free as himself,. and as worthy 
to be free. 

What has he got for his efforts ? Just what he deserved, — 
scorn, neglect, and contempt. Look at the record : — 

Fifty-third ballot. For Webster, 21} 

Where is the Southern support for which the great apos- 
tate sold out ? Not to be found. Not even as a compliment 
would the slaveholders vote for him. May such ever be the 
reward of treachery ! 

[Lowell American, Sept. 20, 1852.] 
FOOD FOR POLITICIANS. 

'^May 3'ou eat dirt!" is a form of cursing in Turkey. 
But the same phrase — when the dirt is scraped up below 
Mason and Dixon's Line, and mixed with the sweat and 
blood of three million bondmen — ma}^ be set down as a 
form of blessing in America. Certainly this article of diet, 
so prepared, is and always has been wholly indispensable in 
the training of champions for our presidential scuffles. He 
who could gobble down the most of it with the greatest 
gusto would ever find the biggest crowd of backers among 
our Southern managers of the ring. 

Frank Pierce, who brags of having stuffed himself with 
this unhallowed pudding ever since he could eat solid food, 
calculates to win the Wliite House on that very ground. 
And thus we behold a substance which affords a byword of 
the bitterest scorn to Moslems, partaken of, as adding a 
relish to their daily bread, b}^ ambitious politicians, and sanc- 
timonious priests who pass for Christians; and it doesn't 
appear to stick in their throats any more than would so 
much treasury-pap or missionarj'-pie. 

1 "Webster received six votes for President out of New England in 
1852, not one across tlie Potomac; never got beyond tliirty-two votes. — 
W. S. R. in 1B75. 



198 "WARRINGTON:" 



CHAPTER III. 

THE WHIGS A^^D THE COaVLITION. 

[Lowell American, 18o3.] 

LETTERS FROJI THE STATE HOUSE. 

Popular ignorance as to the Great and General Court 
is absolutely astonishing. As the procession to hear the 
election-sermon was passing along "Washington Street, one 
of the on-lookers put the question to another, " Who are 
these? " He was told, " The members of the legislature ; " 
and he then inquired, " AVhieli is Gen. Pierce?"-' Being 
informed that he had passed, surrounded by his aides, he 
hurried forward, caught a glimpse of Gov. BoutwuU, and 
declared that "he looks jest like the pickters." 

REPRESENTATIVE BUMSTEAD.'* 

" Fish, lisb, arc you doing your duty? " — Arabian A'ights, 

My friend Melchezidcck Herringbone, Esq., the represen- 
tative from Pig-whistle Four Corners, who is monitor of the 
Ninth Division, intends to offer an order to-morrow for an 
inquiry into the expedicnc}' of furnishing furtlier protection 
to peanuts, to the end that these interesting little wegetables 
may be furnished with a thicker skin, to guard them against 
the inclemcnc}' of the weather and the teeth of rowd}' school- 
bo3's, against the peace of the Commonwealth, and of the 
statute in such case made and provided. 

1 ^leaninj; Pros. Pierce. 

2 For Representative Bnmstead, continued, see Brief Biographies. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 199 

And Sampson Deodatus Bumstead, Esq., the distinguished 
and veteran legislator from Calf-IIollow Half- Acre, has ex- 
hibited to me the rough draught of an order which he proposes 
to introduce, looking to the repeal of the laws relative to 
alewives in Taunton Great River, — laws which he considers 
subversive of the rights of the finny tribe, tremendously 
oppressive upon fishermen, unjust to haddock and herring, 
against the spirit of our republican institutions, and incon- 
sistent with the constitution and laws of the Isles of Shoals. 
When tliese orders are offered, I shall say more about 
them. 

THE ADOLITIONISTS. 

The abolitionists who met at the Melodeon have got 
through, and adjourned. I dropped in again on Friday, and 
heard an English gentleman, named Lowe, a few minutes. 
In the course of his remarks, he came down upon Meagher, 
the Irish orator, for what I could not very well understand. 
He classed him with Kossuth and Father Mathew, each 
having j'ielded to the influence of slavery. 

Garrison, the sturdy, persistent follower of his glorious 
idea ; Phillips, the eloquent orator, w^ho might be — oh ! 
such a splendid politician ! Pillsbur}', the indefatigable 
traveller and worker, the every-daj' sort of a man, who has 
the most forcible way of talking of any in the whole lot, to 
my liking ; Parker, who likes to go and make speeches, but 
has too much common sense to follow all the vagaries of the 
others ; . . . and Burleigh, who can prove b}- impregnable 
logic that two and two are not four, — all these people meet 
together jear after 3-ear. 

I admire to hear them, and have no doubt whatever that 
they have done more than any other equal number of men to- 
wards hastening the abolition of slaver}', but don't accede to 
their claim that they have done all, or that nobody else can 
do any thing. 



200 " WARRING TON: " 

THE BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISKR IN 1853. 

" The Dail)' Advertiser ' ' ^ has published five or six columns 
of words urging the legislature to repeal the Convention's 
(Constitutional) law. Perhaps you will ask wh}', in a letter 
from the State House, I allude to these "repeal" articles. 
Because, I answer, ever3' member from the legislature was 
furnished with a cop.y of "The Daily Advertiser " containing 
them ; and the subject properl}- comes under my notice. I 
saw the pile of " Advertisers," wet, soggj', dull. I saw rash 
representatives, impelled by Yankee instinct for newspapers, 
3'et not knowing what the}- did, seize upon them, and thrust 
them into their pockets. I saw others in the House under- 
taking to read the repeal articles. I watched the struggle 
going on in the mind of each reader, as shown in his puzzled, 
or amazed, or amused countenance. I saw the gleam of 
intelligence which lighted up the face of one good man, who, 
about halfway down the second column, fancied that he had 
discovered something which he could understand, if allowed 
time to investigate it ; and, again, I saw others giving up 
the contest in despair, and asking what kind of a paper it 
was, and what the editor was driving at. 

It is one of the curiosities of journalism. Whj' is it called 
a daily, I wonder. We are apt to think of a dail}- thing as 
of something new and fresh, — a birth or bursting-forth, an 
effulgence, a ga3'et3% Is " The Daily Advertiser" new or 
fresh? Naj-, but ver}' old and veiy stale. Is it a birth? 
Na}', unless it is in the sense of "Wordsworth's line, — 

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting." 

Is it a bursting-forth ? Nay, but a bursting-up, rather. Is 
it an effulgence ? Na}', but a fog. Is it a ga^'et}'? Na}', 
but a ver}' specific gravity. 

1 The Advertiser, iu 1853, and long after, was linnkerisli and bit- 
terly proslavery, and, of course, opposed to all reforms in which Mr. 
Ivobinson was interested. AVhen he could not convince, he ridiculed, 
lus opponents. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 201 

[Lowell American, March 10, 1853.] 
LETTER TO THE WHIGS (cOALITION) . 

Brethren, I would not aggravate j-our condition : I would 
fain bring out of it profit to yourselves ; and, to do this, I 
must not merel}' remind 3-ou of j'our defeats, and the appar- 
ent and immediate cause, which is your lack of votes, but 
also the remote cause, which is the lack of the confidence 
and respect of the people. And even this information will 
be of little practical use to 3'ou, unless you take measures to 
get the respect and confidence of the people in the future. 

To recur to Sancho Panza : "The reason, Sancho," said 
his master, " wh}' thou feelest that pain all down thy back is, 
that the stick which gave it thee was of a length to that ex- 
tent." — "God's my life ! " exclaimed Sancho impatiently: 
"as if I could not guess that of m}- own head ! The question 
is, however, How am I to get rid of it? " 

There is no way, O Sancho Whigger}-, to get rid of the 
pain inflicted by this enormous coalition stick ; but there 
is a way to avoid such another infliction. Behave 3'ourself 
properl}'. Discard bad leaders, and refuse bad advice. Put 
not 3'ourself in the way of the people ; deny not to them the 
right of sovereignt}'. Claim not for j'our awkward squad in 
the State House a power greater than the sixty-six thousand 
people who voted for the Convention. Repeal not laws which 
the people ask to have retained. Use not mob-law. Abolish 
not the rules and orders. Legislate soberl}' and discreetly. 
Set not your faces against ever}- thing that has an unwonted 
appearance. Be modern men, and not antique fossils. And 
with this advice I leave 30U. 

[Lowell American, June 23, 1853.] 
THE CONSOLATION OP ASSES. 

It is said to be the onl}' consolation of a mule, that his 
father was a horse. Now, although it is quite a waste of 
ammunition to allude again to the last communication of 
" C." in "The Lowell Courier," one expression of his is 



202 "WAIiRINGTON:" 

"worthy of notice, showing as it docs his close resemblance 
to that long-cared species of animal. Sa^-s "C," "The 
Free-Soil party has not even the shadow of a name in the 
records of the remote past;" intimating thereb}' that it is 
lessened in importance, and cannot stand np b}' the side of 
the old AVhig party, which ma}' have existed ever since the 
days of — the 3'ear A.D. 1828. 

There is an excellent reply to this remark of " C." to be 
fonnd in the history- of ancient Greece. Iphicrates, one of 
the ablest of the Athenian generals, was the son of a shoe- 
maker. Being engaged in a cause before the judges, he was 
taunted of his mean extraction b}' his opponent, who boasted 
of being a descendant of Ilarmodius. "Yes," replied the 
noble soldier with cutting sarcasm, the "nobility of my 
family begins in me : that of yours ends in you." 

" C." may find, that, although the Free-Soil party has no 
name in the records of the remote past, the Whig party will 
be wanting of a being in the remote future. The power of 
the former begins with the present ; and with the present ends 
the power of the latter. It is too late an age to find honor 
in being of that class whose chief excellence, like the po- 
tato, lies beneath the sod. 

[Lowell American, Aug. IG, 1853.] 

TUE CON-STI-TU-TION EX-PLAIN-ED FOR LIT-TLE C. C* 
For Be-fjin-ners. 
Now, lit-tle boy, let us tell you some-thing which you do 
not know, be-cause j'ou are a very sil-l}" lit-tle bo}'. If the 
Con-sti-tu-tion is a-dopt-ed by the peo-ple, it will make no 
dif-fer-cnce as to the S3-s-tem of rep-re-scn-ta-tion, wheth-er 
the pret-ty Whigs or the naugh-ty Free-Soil-ers and Lo-co- 
fo-cos get the le-gis-la-ture. The peo-ple can say wheth-er 
they will have the Con-sti-tu-tion, or not ; and if the}' say 
the}' will have it, then the town sys-tem will go in-to ef-fect, 
no mat-ter if the AVhigs should not like it, or if they should 
get the ma-jor-i-ty in the le-gis-la-ture. 

1 One of the editors of a Whig paper in Lowell. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 203 

And in the year eigh-teen hun-dred and fifty-six, which is 
three j'ears af-ter this j'ear (and ^'on can count the months 
on j-our bless-ed lit-tle fin-gers and dar-ling lit-tle toes) , the 
le-gis-la-ture will have to dis-trict the State, just as the 
pret-ty Whigs wish ; and this will hap-pen just the same 
un-der a Lo-co-fo-co Free-Soil le-gis-la-ture as it will un- 
der a Whig le-gis-la-ture. For let us tell j-ou, lit-tle Char- 
ley C, that the town and the dis-trict s3-s-tem in the new 
Con-sti-tu-tion are both so join-ed to-geth-er, that e-ven if 
3'ou were a great man, and al-low-ed to vote (and we hope 
^•ou will grow up and be large e-nough be-fore an-oth-er Con- 
sti-tu-tion is made) , 3'ou would have to vote ei-ther for both or 
a-gainst both ; for the wick-ed Free-Soil-ers and Lo-co-fo-cos 
have fix-ed it so that 3-ou can-not do oth-er-wise. 

Now, lit-tle Char-le3', if 3-ou will stud-3' hard all the week, 
and tr3' to un-der-stand this, and ask 3'our mam-ma to spell 
the long words for you, and 3-our broth-er to point out the 
mean-ing of the hard words, then 3'ou can come a-gain, and 
we will tell you how it is that a man can sup-port the new 
Con-sti-tu-tion with-out aid-ing the e-lec-tion of a co-a-li-tion 
le-gis-la-ture ; and, when 3-ou have got-ten this les-son 
per-fect, 3'ou shall have a nice piece of plum-cake, and the 
big bo3-s will not an3' lon-ger laugh at 30U for be-ing a sil-13", 
ig-no-rant lit-tle boy. 



[From the Evening Post, 1853.] 
DEFEAT OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION. 

One of m3' good friends requests me to " write something 
funn3- ' ' to cheer up the spirits of the prostrate coalitionists 
and constitutional I'eformers of this region under the over- 
whelming defeat which the3' met with 3-esterda3'. I will be 
" as funn3' as I can ; " but ghastliness forms a considerable 
ingredient in our smiling, and bitterness in our wit, just now. 
I had prepared some ver3' facetious remarks in partial anti- 
cipation of a different result. In connection with that result, 
these would make 30U and all men laugh ; but " much remains 



204 "WARRINGTON:" 

unsung," and must so remain. Abbott Lavrrence going 
about the State drenching his pocket-handkerchief with 
tears at the bare idea of being disfranchised was a subject 
for mirth, to be sure ; but Abbott Lawrence dragging his 
wallet and contents out to "feed" fort3'-one perambulating 
Whig orators formed quite another picture. To hear John G. 
Palfrc}' and Charles F. Adams hounding down a Constitution 
they must have known was infuiiteh' preferable to the old 
one was calculated to bring a satirical smile upon the fiices 
of those who knew that their real object was to revenge 
themselves upon Ilenrj* "Wilson ; but the spectacle of hun- 
dreds of honest men gulled b}' their sophistry was not 
agreeable in au}^ sense of the word. The man who has his 
doubts about the intelligence of the masses — the laboring- 
classes — might be excused, if he inwardly chuckled over the 
sight of "The Boston Pilot" trying to lead Irishmen into 
the jaws of a Boston aristocracy as remorseless as the one 
they had left Ireland to get rid of; but the success of this 
effort, as manifest in the vote of Boston, Lowell, Charles- 
town, and other places, must have deprived the cynic of even 
the poor satisfaction of a sneer. 

It would take a dozen letters to give you an account of all 
the causes of this disaster. I shall merely enumerate them ; 
and here they are : — 

1. The cit}' of Boston. 2. Abbott Lawrence's wallet. 
3. The Roman-Catholic vote. 4. The entire part}' oppo- 
sition of the Whigs. 5. The rum vote. G. The hunker 
"Post" influence. 7. The temperance vote. 8. The 
treachery of the Free-Soil leaders. 9. Caleb Cushing's inter- 
ference. 10. The cry, " Free-Soil Constitution." 11. The 
cry, "Wilson is to be Governor." 12. The conservatism 
of the people. 13. The blunders of the Convention. 14. 
The indilference of the voters. 15. The opposition of Har- 
vard College and the Unitarians. IG. The opposition of 
Andover and the Orthodox. 17. The opposition of "The 
Pilot" and the Catholics. 18. The opposition of "The 
Investigator" and the infidels. 19. The opposition of the 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 205 

old-fogy Whigs. 20. The opposition of the liberal Whigs. 
21. Hatred of niggers and Free-Soilers. 22. The opposi- 
tion of the large cities. 23. The opposition of the small 
towns. 

Abbott Lawrence, the millionnaire, and ragged Simon, the 
town pauper ; Father Brownson, the Catholic, and Nehe- 
miah Twang, the Puritan ; John G-. Palfrej', the representa- 
tive of Harvard College, and Peleg Jenkins, who is opposed 
to common schools, and thinks Jackson is still President ; 
the Hon. Alonzo Stiff from Beacon Street, and Sam the 
bull}' from the Black Sea ; Narcissus Yardstick, the counter- 
jumper, and Jonathan Harrowtooth, the farmer in the back 
settlements ; Charles F. Adams, the abolitionist, and Caleb 
Cushing, the crusher of abolitionists ; George S. Ilillard, 
with his cologne bottle, and Moses Mudlark, skipper of the 
scow " Betse}' ; " Hudson, who fastens all his audience to 
their seats (asleep), and Lord, who drives them all away 
(disgusted) ; Standstill, the conservative, and Venture, the 
radical ; Blilil and Black George ; tag, rag, and bobtail, — 

"Some in rags, 
Some in tags, 
And some in velvet gowns," — 

all united to vote down the new Constitution. 

The result appears to be this, — that the coalition is com- 
pletel}- dead ; the secret ballot law and ten-hour law are 
prostrate, the Free-Soil party disheartened, and the Demo- 
cratic party good for nothing ; constitutional reform will not 
be heard of again for many years ; the fogies will frown 
down all attempts at agitation, whether by Democrats or 
liberal Whigs ; ■ the Whig party remains in the complete 
control of Boston, and the money-bags of Boston rule the 
State. 



206 ''WARRINGTON:" 



CHAPTER IV. 

WORKINGS OF THE FUGITI^T>-SLAVE ACT IN MASSA- 
CHUSETTS. 

[Boston Daily Commonwealth, June 3, 1854.] 
RENDITION OF ANTONY BURNS. 

Antony Burns was taken Wcclnescla_y night, Ma}' 24, 1854, 
in Court Square, between six and seven o'clock, and kept in 
durance all night in the Court Plouse. The next morning, 
about nine o'clock, he was brought before Commissioner 
Edward G. Loring for examination. S. D. Parker, Esq., 
appears in behalf of the man-hunters, and used documents 
purporting to be from the Circuit Court of the Count}' of 
Alexandria in Virginia, which set forth that Charles Suttle 
of Alexandria, in that State, is the owner of Anton}' Burns. 
It was alleged, in substance, that the man under arrest is this 
Burns ; that he ran away from his owner ; and that the hunt- 
ers mean to take this man back to Virginia, there to be held 
and treated as a chattel. 

In the name of outraged liberty, we thank the men, who, 
in Faneuil Hall last Friday night, gave expression to their 
feelings on the subject of the slave-hunt. "We honor the 
feelings which led to the ill-timed attempt to rescue Burns. 
We call no man a criminal who spoke in the hall, or who 
assailed the Court House. ^ Not until we can condemn the 

1 On the night of this assault there was a meeting in Faneuil Hall, 
called to order by Samuel E. Sewall, presided over by George R. Ilus- 
sell, and addressed by "Wendell Pliillips, Theodore Parker, and John L. 
Swiff. I quote from p. ;>o of a book called "Antony Burns; a Story:" 
"John L. Swift, a young lawyer of fervid oratory, next addressed the 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 207 

men who threw the tea into Boston Harbor, or who mobbed 
the Austrian Haynau, or who drove Ward the murderer out 
of Louisville, can we condemn as criminals the men who 
have been visited with the denunciations of the proslaverj' 
press, and who are now under arrest, or in danger of arrest ; 
and, when we consider who are the men who reprove these 
for violent language and action, we are still less disposed 
to join with them. 

Who is Suttle?- A Virginian slaveholdei*, who has never 
known any other law than the l^'uch-law, by which his system 
lives. Who is B. F. Hallett, his legal adviser? A man 
who has got his living ever since we ever heard of him by 
defending law-breakers ; a man whom we once heard compare 
the keeper of a tippling-shop to the Revolutionary heroes of 
1776, because the man had violated the fifteen-gallon- law. 
Who composed the guard of poor Burns as he passed down 
State Street? A gang of the most audacious, law-breaking 
ruffians to be found in the whole city. 

The deed of shame has been done. Boston is again dis- 
graced. Massachusetts is prostrate to-day at the feet of the 

assembly. 'Burns,' said he, 'is iu the Court House. Is there any law 
to keep him there? If we allow Marshal Freeman to carry away that 
man, tlien the word " cowards" should be stamped upon our foreheads. 
When we go from this cradle of Liberty, let us go to the tomb of Liberty, 
the Court House. To-morrow Burns will have remained incarcerated 
more than three days, and I hope to-morrow to witness in his release 
the resurrection of Liberty.' Phillips and Parker spoke afterwards ; 
Phillip:* a second time, for the purpose of restraining the crowd, who 
were greatly excited by Parker's words and by the turbulent spirit of 
the night. The great orator had got his audience well in hand, when 
sixddeuly a man at the entrance of the hall shouted, ' Mr. Chairman, I 
am just informed that a mob of negroes is in Coiirt Square attempting to 
rescue Burns. I move that we adjourn to Court Square.' A formal vote 
was not waited for; and the next instant the whole mass was pouring 
down the broad stairs, and along the streets towards the new theatre 
of action." I take pleasure in making this contribution to the history 
of a most picturesque event in the antislavery annals, — one of the 
landmarks in the war of resistance to slave-driving tyranny, which 
finally became a war of aggression and extermination against slave- 
drivers themselves. Swift's part in it only makes more conspicuous 
his after-defection. — "W. S. R. in 18G6. 



208 "WARRINGTON:" 

slaveholders ; yes, at the feet of one slaveholder. The 
infamy of yesterda}' will leave a stain upon her history for-i 
ever. Dear as are the memories of Bunker Hill and Faneuil 
Ilall and Liberty Tree, honorable and cherished as are the 
lives of Otis, Quincj', and the Adamses, let no man boast of 
them now. "We are but serfs, pliant, supple menials of the 
slaveholders, the "niggers" of the Union. Slaver}' sa3-s 
to Massachusetts and Boston, " I command 3'ou to catch my 
negro slave, and return him to me ; " and Boston obej'S her. 
Our governor, our maj'or, and militar}- force, yield to the 
demand. All business is suspended for a week, that we may 
obe}' the bloody behest. Our courts are interrupted, our 
anniversaries are forsaken, our trade suffers to a vast 
amount, our laws are prostrate, — all that Col. Charles Suttle 
ma}' have his twelve hundred dollars' worth of negro flesh. 
We say our laws are prostrate. This is literall}- true. For 
eight days there was no law of Massachusetts which could 
be enforced in Boston, if it conflicted in any degree with the 
X^'opertij -claim of Col. Suttle. A claim worth twelve hun- 
dred dollars at the utmost, an issue no greater than man}' 
which are tried dail}" in our courts, and not of half so much 
consequence (to the claimant, we mean) as cases which occur 
every montli or week, was of so sacred a nature, that the 
laws of a sovereign State all had to give wa}" to it. 

The people of Massachusetts are deep]}' moved by the 
results of the past week. This feeling exhibits itself first in 
the usual methods. The slave-hunter, Commissioner Loring, 
has been symbolically hanged, burned, and buried in various 
places. AVith a slight disregard of the " fitness of things,'* 
in other places, Ilallett, who is worth}' only of tar, and 
Thomas,^ and Parker, who would be sufficiently honored by a 
Mck^ have been also suspended in efligy. The women of 
Woburn have transmitted to Loring thirty pieces of silver, 
of the smallest known denomination, indicating to him by 
this act the views which they hold of the enormity of his 

1 Seth J. Thomas, counsel for slaveholders. 



PEN-POETRAITS. 209 

conduct in sending to a slavery worse tlian death an inno- 
cent man. "We must be allowed, while admitting the appro- 
priateness of Ihis gift, to protest against its being followed 
to any great extent. We object even to the addition of 
ninety cents to the legal fee of ten dollars which Loring has 
received for his inhuman job. These demonstrations of feel- 
ing are honorable to the people. There is a sense of burning 
indignation at the disgrace into which Massachusetts has 
fallen in these daj's, — fallen so low as to be the jeer and 
laughing-stock of Virginian slave-drivers. Better than this, 
there is a stern feeling, that, if we do not before long resist, 
there will be no liberty left for any man among us ; a knowl- 
edge forced upon men b}^ the events here and at Washington 
within three months, that now must the trial come between 
slaverj' and freedom ; that the great enemj'' of our peace has 
obtained an advantage by the passage of the Nebraska Bill, 
which, if followed up, will place the whole nation in absolute 
submission to its will, and leave no alternative but serfdom, 
or separation. 

One word must, however, now be said. Edward G. L"or- 
ING is the chief culprit. Not a single man who has been 
engaged in the business of seizing negroes, from Grier to 
Ingraham, from Kane to Curtis, has behaved worse than 
Loring. With a question of identit}^, on which the evidence 
was conflicting, he has allowed Burns to be returned to the 
untold and half-imagined woes of slavery upon evidence 
wrenched from him (if obtained at all) by his tyrannical 
claimant. 

This decision, while it illustrates that complete negation of 
all laio which is the characteristic and animating principle 
of the Fugitive-slave Bill, also illustrates, in an unmistaka- 
ble manner, the character of Edward G. Loring. He needs 
not to be called names, if names bad enough could be found 
for him. He ought to be forever held infamous b}' the people 
of Boston and of Massachusetts. He ought to be driven 
out from the community' he has disgraced, as Matt Ward is 
driven out of Louisville. Let him be a marked man for- 



210 "WABRINGTOX:" 

ever. Let Harvard College be required to repudiate his 
teachings, and the legislature compelled to fill his judicial 
station with another and better man. Let the public senti- 
ment uhich he has outraged follow him. Let it concentrate 
itself upon him. 



[Boston Daily Telegraph, May 24.] 

ONE THING TO BE DOXE.^ 

[Judge Lorinj.] 

Massachusetts and Boston must no longer be disgi'aced by 

a slave-catching, ten-dollar commissioner acting as judge 

of probate. The process of removal is not with the gov- 

1 This was the first article written in favor of Lorin^'s removal, and 
the beginning of tlie movement which resulted, four years after, in his 
removal. I sent this article to the Evening Telegraph. 

[For the Telegraph.] 

April it, 1855. 
Messrs. Editors, — I observe that 3Ir. Huntington of Northampton is reported 
as saving in the House, that "Theodore Parker was, at an e.xcited meeting, at the 
bottom of all this movement " for the removal of Judge Loring. The fii-st petition 
for the removal of Judge Loring was written by one of tlie editor of the Com- 
monwealth, and was printed in the afternoon edition of that paper, on the day 
Judge Loring sent Burns into slaveiy, and, within an hour of the time. Burns was 
carried down State Street. A copy of the petition was also placed in the counting- 
room of the paper, and received a number of signatures. Without wishing to 
detract from the merit of ^li. Pai'ker in the matter, I think it is proper that tills 
fact should be known. C 

I also wrote the first articles after the legislature met, in favor of 
Loring's removal; and I have reason to helieve that they determined 
the question in the House. Before I wrote them, I conversed with 
several antislavery members, who were themselves doubtful as to the 
"expediency," and who thought the moveiiiont would fail if it was 
tried. Mr. R. H. Dana said to Carter, "This is all the Telegraph's 
work." The resolution to remove Loring passed the House on the 
14th by ninety-live majority. 

Robert Carter wrote some excellent articles on the subject. Seth 
Webb, jun., wrote one. These, with my own, appeared, and did the 
work, before the proprietors got frightened, and prohibited In some 
degree, though not entirely, the advocacy of the measure. 

Probably John L. Swift, C. W. Slack, and others who spoke in the 
House, think that they exercised a powerful influence upon the result; 
but men's minds were made up by aid of the Telegraph long before 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 211 

ernor, but with the legislature. It may be done b}' address 
of the two branches, or by impeachment. The first is the 
practical method. "We have hastily prepared the following 
form of petition. This, or something lilie it, must be signed 
by all the people, and sent to the next legislature ; and men 
must be chosen to that body who will act up to its request : — 

To the Legislature of Massachusetts.! — 

The undersigned, citizens of Massachusetts, request of 
your honorable body to forthwith take measures for the 

REMOVAL OF EdWARD GrEELEY LoRING FROM THE OFFICE 

OF Judge of Probate for Suffolk County. 



[Boston Daily Telegraph, May 2.] 
southern literature. 
The Rev. Dr. Nehemiah Adams went to the South, and 
saw that the slaves were exceedingly well dressed, especially 
on Sunda}'. They wore " broadcloth suits, well-fitting and 
nicely ironed fine shirts, polished boots, gloves, umbrellas 
for sun-shades, the best of hats, their 3'oung men with their 
blue coats and bright buttons in the latest style, white Mar- 
seilles vests, white pantaloons, with brooches in their shirt- 

a speecli was made. At this time, two hundred and twenty-two copies 
of the Daily Telegraph were taken by the members. — W. S. R. in 
Diary of 1858. 

The honor of having suggested the removal of Judge Loring from 
the Probate Court is likely to be contended for; and therefore, with 
your permission, I beg leave to embalm the facts in the columns of 
the Evening Post. On the day that Mr. Burns was removed, Mr. 
W. S. PLobinson, one oi the editors of the Boston Commonwealth 
newspaper, drew up the first petition that ever existed for the judge's 
removal, and published it in tliat day's paper, in less than an hour 
after the fugitive had been carried down to the slaver in which he was 
transported back to Virginia. The same gentleman placed a copy of 
the petition in the counting-room of the paper, and it was signed on 
that day by several persons. Mr. Robinson ought to have the credit 
which attaches to the opening of the proceeding, which has all along, 
and through its various stages, been opposed by those who form the 
aristocratical branch of the Free-Soilers. — C. C. Hazewell's Letter to 
New - York Eveninrj Post. 



212 "WARRINGTON:" 

bosoms, gold chains, elegant sticks, and some old men 
leaning on their ivor}^ and silver-headed staffs." He saw 
one man, a member of a band of musicians, who had even 
attained to the dignit}^ of periscopic glasses. Some of the 
young women wore turbans, and walked with a rhetorical 
lifting of the arm and leg. On the whole, the reverend 
doctor found the slaves a remarkably happy people. He 
asked one of them if he wanted to be free ; and he replied, 
that he only wanted to be free in the Lord ; and the doctor 
believed him. It is not for us to discredit his statements : 
onlj' we are puzzled to account for certain advertisements 
which we find in the Southern newspapers. They are easy 
to be found, — these advertisements to which we allude. The 
portrait of a fugacious person, with a pack upon his back, 
shows at a glance what is the subject of the notice. We 
have several of these advertisements now before us. How 
to account for their appearance — that is the question. If 
the slaves are happy, why do they run away from happiness ? 
Are the}' surfeited with delights? and do the}' run ofT on that 
account? Do broadcloth suits, including Marseilles vests, 
eventuall}' pall upon the appetite of the fashionable colored 
man, brooches grow nauseating to his simple taste, and 
even periscopic glasses become unsatisfactory ? 

Passing over the large rewards offered for Mike, a black, 
heavy set fellow, the end of one of whose thumbs is bit off, 
a brickla3-er by trade ; for Andrew, a man of " rather light 
complexion ; " and for Charles, who is very black, and has a 
limp in his left leg, which we trust left him when he got on 
the high road towards the north star, — we come to the 
following " rare chance : " — 

" A family of negroes, consisting of a woman forty years of age, 
a splendid cook, washer and ironer, and her three children; viz., a 
dark mulatto girl about sixteen years of age, a most excellent nurse, 
and good seamstress, and accustomed to all kinds of housework; also 
a girl about thirteen years of age, a good house-servant ; also a boy 
about eleven years of age. The above family of negroes will be fully 
guaranteed. They are slaves of excellent character, and are sold 
only from necessity. A bargain will be given to any person who will 
buy the family together. 



PEW-PORTRAITS. 213 

" Also a very likely mulatto man, about twenty-four years of age, 
a first-rate dining-room and general house servant, fully acclimated. 
Such servants are seldom offered for sale. 

''Apply to . "H.T.Greenwood, 

"47 Carondelet Street." 

Mr. Greenwood, j'ou are mistaken. Such servants are 
often offered for sale, if we may believe the advertisements 
in the Southern papers. Sold only from necessit}-, indeed ! 
Whose necessity ? AVho is this great lubberl}^ Greenwood ? 
and b}' what title does he relieve his embarrassments in this 
wa}' ? Who gave him the right to dispose of this splendid 
cook, M'asher and ironer, this excellent nurse and good 
seamstress, this good house-servant, and this j'oung lad? 
Will Greenwood's neighbors give him any such recommen- 
dation as he gives this family he is going to sell ? Is he a 
"splendid" or " excellent" any thing? Is he not a thief, 
who, after stealing the labor of this family for years, now 
sells them to pay his debts withal ? 



214 ''WARRINGTON:" 



CHAPTER V. 

THE KNOW-KOTHING AND STRAIGHT BEPUBLICAN 
PARTIES. 

["Warrington's" Letters iu Siiriugfiekl Republican, i Jan. 24.] 
THE KNOW-NOTUING ^ LEGISLATURE OF 185G. 

" Steal, steal, steal." If this does not continue to be 
the watchword of the Kuow-Nothing State Government, it 
will be no fault of the leader of the dominant part}^ in 
the House. Mr. Devereux occupied another hour or two 
to-day in defending the extravagance of the Gardner 
administration. Mr. Charles Ilale opened the debate in a 
speecli of an hour, excellent in matter, and at times spirited 
and effective in st^-le. Ilis examination of the Hnaucial 
condition of the State was ver}' able, and his exposure of 
Mr. Dcvereux's speech of j'esterday entirel}' conclusive to 
all impartial men. 

We have got a live slaveholder in the city, Mr. Robert 
Toombs^ of Georgia; and, of course, the Boston aristocrac)' 
are in ecstasies of delight. Mr. Appleton has the honor of 
entertaining the distinguished guest. 

We had a specimen of "the chloroform game" in the 
House to-day upon a large scale. Mr. Storj- of Somerville, 
taking his stand in front of the speaker's desk, began to 

1 Unless otherwise designated. 

2 The Native American or Know-Xothinrj party was a secret organiza- 
tion, and to "know nothing" was its policy and password. It was 
called the " K. N — s." 

3 Robert Toombs threatened to call the roll of his slaves under the 
shallow of Bunker Hill. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 215 

speak upon the Jury Bill. It was curious to witness the 
effect. Wide-awake people like the reporters, who recog- 
nized the signs which precede the advent of a 6o?-e, packed 
up their papers, and took themselves off. The lobbies were 
soon filled with members congratulating themselves upon 
their escape, and occasionally looking at the door, and trying 
to penetrate, if possible, the pall which Story had spread in 
a very few minutes over the whole House. I have it from one 
who remained, and kept himself awake by thi'usting a piu 
into a fleshy part of his bod}', that, about a quarter of an 
hour after Story had fairl}' got under way, the scene before 
him was a peculiar one. Some members had fallen forward, 
and were asleep in the most curious and awkward positions, 
having been overtaken without any time for preparation. 
Others, who saw what was coming, but had found their legs 
fail them when they tried to get clear, had carefully covered 
their heads with their bandannas, and had gentl}^ and grace- 
fully subsided. One man, who said he could stand ayiy thing ^ 
having been a steady reader of " The Dail}^ Advertiser" for 
a dozen 3'ears, undertook to defy his fate, and fortified him- 
self with the third number of " Little Dorrit." He stood it 
through the account of the "circumlocution-office," but 
3ielded as soon as he had finished that chapter. Dickens 
had found his match at last. One man in the gallery, who 
happened to 3'awn at a quarter-past twelve, was paralj-zed 
before he had finished ; and his mouth remained open more 
than three-quarters of an hour. The benumbing influence 
escaped at the doors, and penetrated into the senate-chamber. 
Men in the lobbies were obliged to leave ; and the senate, 
which had unflinchingly withstood eighteen speeches in one 
da}' from George W. Warren, precipitately adjourned. The 
clerks in the ofHce of the secretary of state and the treas- 
urer were obliged to suspend their work ; and a chambermaid 
on Mount Vernon Street, who had once nearly died of the 
fumes of charcoal, roused the house in great alarm at the 
familiar smell. The sergeant- at-arms was implored to inter- 
fere, but he was too far gone to respond ; the speaker could 



216 *' WARRINGTON:" 

not lift his gavel: and so Mr. Stoiy had his audience com- 
pletel}' at his mere}'. At last, about one o'clock, he yielded 
the floor. The enchanted jaw closed ; one b}^ one the sleepers 
roused themselves ; ISIr. Lamb of Greenfield seized the floor, 
and, by his vigorous and energetic method, dispelled the 
charm ; and finallj' things went on about the same as ever. 
Mr. Story still remains an object of curiosit}' to hundreds. 

Of what consequence are legislative proceedings? Isn't 
Banks elected? Isn't the north star in fall view? Are not 
the doughfaces prostrated, the Administration and its Ne- 
braska Bill rebuked, and the Republican policy and principle 
gloriousl}' sustained at Washington ? Who cares for legisla- 
tive news to-da)', or Coburn and Dalton trials, or snowdrifts 
on all the railroads ? 

[May 23.] 

ASSAULT ON CHARLES SUMNER. 

The members of the House were j-esterday afternoon 
startled by the news that Senator Sumner had been assaulted 
and beaten b}' Brooks of South Carolina. A great deal of 
feeling exists throughout the community in relation to this 
attempt to take the life of our senator for words spoken in 
debate. Yet the deed alread}' has its apologists. " The 
Boston Post " despatches the subject in six or seven lines, 
and mentions that Mr. Brooks was " irritated ; " and I pre- 
sume that the organs of border-ruffianism throughout the 
country will find some similar excuse. Murder has become 
a jyartij question in this country- ; and the part}' which seeks 
and finds apologies for the outrages in Kansas — apologies 
imbecile as well as apologies infamous — Avill not be unable 
to apologize for this last and crowning act of ruffianism. It 
is difficult to speak of this subject in tuny suitable terms. 
Let the minds of all men be directed to the remedy for the 
state of aff"airs which produces such outrages. Apathy and 
division at present threaten to destroy Northern efficienc}-, 
and so perpetuate the reign of misrule for an indefinite 
period. Perliaps events of this sort, which have taken 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 217 

place every day in Kansas, and the scene of which is now 
transferred to "Washington, may 

"Lend this dead air a breeze of health, 
And smite with stars this cloud." 

Every man feels and expresses the greatest alarm as to 
Mr. Sumner. His death would indeed be a dreadful event, 
and would create a sensation of more sincere sorrow than 
the death of any man known in our historj'". 

[June 2.] 
RELIEF OF KANSAS. 

I gave 5'ou on Saturday an account of the contest in the 
House upon the resolve appropriating twenty thousand 
dollars for the relief of the crushed-out Massachusetts men 
now in Kansas. It would be difficult to give 3'ou an ade- 
quate idea of the bitter and malignant hatred of the Kansas 
cause, which was exhibited in the speeches against this patri- 
otic and humane resolve. Of course, speakers had apologies 
to make for their course : knavery and rufDanism never 
lack apologists. Of all the drivelling, jabbering, idiotic 
nonsense that ever got uttered in a legislative bod^', these 
speeches were the worst. A hundred and ninety-one mem- 
bers deliberately put themselves upon record as approving of 
the resolve, word for word ; but, after these ruffian-s^-mpa- 
thizers had spoken, a vote was obtained to lay the resolve 
on the table. To-day an attempt was made to take it 
from the table ; but it failed. It is understood that Gov. 
Gardner is working against it with all his might ; and there 
are at least a hundred members of the House who will vote 
against any thing (except their own salaries) at his com- 
mand. 

In the afternoon, another attempt was made ; and, under 
the yeas and uaj's, it was carried, 115 to 105. The resolve 
was then postponed until to-day ; and at ten o'clock the 
debate commenced. The border-ruffian argument was pre- 
sented by Messrs. Lawrence of Cambridge, and Merwin and 



218 "WARRINGTON: " 

Codman of Boston (Whigs), and "Wilkinson of Dt'(lluira 
(border- lullian Democrat). Replies were made b}' Mr. 
Pike of Newton, and Mr. Charles Hale. At eleven o'clock, 
Mr, Grossman of Springfield (border- ruffian) moved to la}' 
the resolve on the table. Mr. Hall demanded the yeas and 
nays ; and the}' were ordered. The vote was then taken, 
with this result: yeas 138, nays 129. So the resolve was 
laid upon the table. This is a distinct and unequivocal 
triumph of the border-rufflan party. I have several times 
reminded you that the House was substantiall}' in the hand.i 
of this part}'. There are about a hundred members, belong- 
ing to the Whig and Democratic parties, who are thoroughly 
imbued with ruffian principles. Now, when you add to these 
some thirty or forty Know-Nothings, who bring here no other 
political ideas than their intense hatred of all antislavery 
men and measures, and quite a large number of political 
adventurers, dependent for political life and sustenance 
upon the will of the cowardly conservative and corrupt 
schemer who tills the gubernatorial office, 3'ou will see that 
decent men and measures have not a lair chance. 

So mean a set of men as this Know-Nothing furor has sent 
into the Massacluisetts legislature were never seen together 
before. Lazy, unprincipled, unscrupulous, mercenary, and 
slavisli, the}' only seek to further their own private ends at 
the expense of the State. 

RASCALITIES OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 

All the rascalities which I have had occasioh to notify you 
of during this session, so far as I remember, have origi- 
nated and been carried through by members oi- officers, with- 
out the agency of outside induence, so far as appeared. It 
is the shallow thought of many persons, that all or most of 
the rascalities are perpetrated by the professed politicians. 
The ex[)erience of the last and present year ought to have 
dispelled this notion, which is a great and mischievous mis- 
take. The innumorablc sins of the Know-Nothing admin- 
istrations of 18oii and 1856 are, in a great degree, to be 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 219 

attributed to the prevalence of this idea. The hundreds and 
thousands of new men who rushed into politics in 1855, and 
became prominent then, had the idea that success and dis- 
tinction were to be reached through the road of intrigue ; 
and having determined to succeed, or be distinguislied at 
au}^ rate, they forthwith proceeded in wliat they considered 
the shortest way. I have lately seen a letter written by a 
member of the House to a newspaper published in the city 
which he represents. This member says, '-Everybody 
knows, that however much we may admire a bold, plain, 
truthful course in a public man, such a course is hardly ever 
successful in making a man influential and popular ; but 
that, on the contrar}*, he who turns his sail to catch every 
passing breeze is apt to triumph over his more honest and 
conscientious opponent." Probably the writer of this ex- 
tract wriggled into his present position of member of the 
House by some discreditable intrigue or other ; and consid- 
ering his election a great " triumph," and his position an 
astonishing elevation over the candidate of the opposing 
parties, he comes to the absurd conclusion which I have 
quoted. 

I am sorry to see that the crooked polic_y of seeking power 
by means akin to those which brought the Know-Nothings so 
prominentl}^ forward is to be persisted in by a class of 
persons who think that the experiment can be twice tried 
with even tempor^r}' success. The " People's Union " is the 
name of a new secret order, which is designed to bring 
together, if possible, the Americans and the Republicans. I 
have seen the constitution of the new order. It has appar- 
ently but few features attractive on account of secrecy. A 
password is, however, required for admission to the meetings. 
The preamble consists of a collection of words skilfully 
mingled, bringing together anti-adrainistrationism and anti- 
foreignism. I don't understand that it has had much suc- 
cess ; and I don't think it deserves to have. If there is any 
thing plainly to be seen in our politics, it is this : that the 
Administration party must be defeated upon the single issue 



220 "WARRINGTON:" 

of opiX)sition to its slavcrj' policj', or not defeated at all. 
Thorc arc thousands of voters who will not, because the}' 
can not, fight the battle on any other issue ; and for my 
own part, next to the slave-power embodied in the Demo- 
cratic part}', I think that Nativism and secret political soci- 
eties are deserving of the most decided hostility of all 
American and democratic men. 

[Jan. 13, 18o7.] 
ELECTION OF MU. SUMNER. 

It was good to be in the Senate to-day at twelve o'clock, 
and see Charles Sumner elected to the United-States Senate 
by a unanimous vote on tlie part of that branch. Some 
little opposition was manifested b\' Mr. 13. C. Clark of Suf- 
folk County (Republican) to the proposition offered b}' Mr. 
Whitnc}' of Worcester, to elect by the viva voce method ; 
but Mr. Clark was the only one who finally voted against it. 
His arguments were replied to — trn easy job, by the wa}-, 
— b}' Messrs. Brakenridge and Warner of Hampshire County, 
Sabin of Berkshire, and Hoar, White, and Usher of AVor- 
cestcr. The list of senators was called over, and every 
one of the forty responded, " Charles Sumner of Boston ; " 
and, when the announcement was made of the result, many 
spectators were present, and the greatest satisfaction was 
expressed. One man told me that he came from a distant 
town to enjoy the scene. 

[Oct. IG.] 

TOE STRAIGHT RliPUliLICAN PARTY. 1 

Chapman Hall proved sufficiently capacious for the ac- 
commodation of the Straight Republicans, who held their 
State Convention there j-estcrda}-. The room will comfort- 
ably hold three or four hundred ; and it was pretty well 
sprinkled over with people. Making allowance for Banks 

1 This part}' was formed agaiast Gov. Dnjiks and the coalition with 
the " Know-Nothings." 



PEJSr-PORTRAITS. 221 

men, Gardner men, cnriosity-luintevs, and reporters, I think 
there were from sevent3--five to a hundred men who attended to 
take part in the business. A preliminary meeting was held 
in the forenoon at the Revere House, which was attended by 
some thirt}' persons. Most of the men engaged in the move- 
ment being old politicians, all the machiner}' was well oiled 
in the morning, and worked like clock-work. There was a 
spontaneity about the motions, the nominations from the 
chair, the appointments of committees, &c., which character- 
izes all well-regulated parties ; and I could not observe, that, 
in those respects, the Convention differed much from those 
which are held by much larger parties. We had a president, a 
respectable number of vice-presidents, a sufficient number of 
secretaries, a committee on address, another on resolutions, 
another on finance, another to appoint a State committee, 
but none on credentials. Ever}' Republican who could not 
go for Banks was welcome : all others were bogus. 

Dr. Caleb Swan made a slight but ineffectual struggle to 
avoid the nomination for governor ; but it was fastened upon 
him. The Convention voted not to receive his declination, 
and he did not sa}' any thing more. 

Mr. Henry L. Pierce of Dorchester, who is nominated for 
treasurer and receiver-general, was present ; and, as he is the 
man of all others most responsible for the movement, there is 
no probability that he will decline, unless he should be elected. 
Dr. Swan, however, who was the most prominent figure, 
is from Easton, in Bristol. His speech in the morning was 
a hearty and genuine outpouring of good-humored indigna- 
tion against slavery and Know-Nothingism, which was greatly 
applauded. The doctor is an old ph3-sician of very exten- 
sive practice. I understand he has lately abandoned allop- 
athj', and now advocates and practises homoeopath}'. You, 
who know how clannish doctors are, will acknowledge that 
this is an indication of firmness and candor, if not of wis- 
dom. The longest speech was made b}- Charles G. Davis of 
Plymouth, lately a member of the Banks State Committee. 
He spoke nearly an hour. F. W. Bird of Walpole made a 



222 " WAMRINGTON: " 

briefer speech, which was sharp and pungent. A Mr. 
Chamberlain of Westborough also spoke. These, I believe, 
were the onl}' set speeches. W. S. Robinson reported a 
State address. 

[Oct. 30.] 

The Straight Republicans have got out their last paper ; 
and, though they sa}' something about its continuance, I 
do not thinlv there will be sufficient "encouragement." 
They have issued in all some thirtj'-five thousand copies of 
the seven numbers, — five thousand per week. But few 
of them have been returned ; and probably they have been 
generally read. It is curious enough that the Straights 
get no sympathy whatever from the old-line antislavery 
men, who are represented by " The Liberator." That paper 
has taken no notice of their movement, has given the 
coldest of its shoulders to Dr. Swan, and this morning 
very unequivocall}' intimates its preference for Mr. Banks. 
Theodore Parker takes a great interest in Mr. Banks's 
success, and has tried personally to dissuade some of the 
Straights from opposing him. Isn't this funny? 

[Nov. C] 
THE FATE OF THE STRAIGHT REPUBLICANS. 

As 3'ou have indicated yonv desire that I should write 
something concerning " the fate of the Straight Republi- 
cans," I suppose I must gratify you ; and I should have no 
great objection, if you would assist my correspondence every 
week by asking questions, — a business for which you have 
such a happy faculty, that I think one of you must have been 
like that relative of Dick SwivcUer who was marked with 
an interrogation-point. Some of your questions, however, 
I shall answer brieflj', and others, haplj", not at all. 

You ask, "Where's the Bird of freedom?"^ I answer, 
" Congratulating himself that Walpole is the banner-town, 

1 F. W. Bird. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 223 

Swan having received fourteen votes there, while he got only 
fifteen in the big city of Worcester." He has been cruelly 
paid for all the wrong he has done ; for, as he tells me, 
some Banks boys seized unlawfully upon a barrel of tar 
belonging to him, which, in the flood, was left upon the bank 
of the "water-privilege," and set fire to it in honor of 
the triumph of "the cause of freedom." They not only 
stole and burned his tar, but frightened him with the fear 
that his mill was on fire. 

You ask, " Where's Swan? " Well, I swan I can't tell ; 
but I suppose he is advertising his globules to the sick 
people of Easton, — the most honest and useful business a 
doctor can be engaged in. "Where's the money spent for 
thirty-five thousand papers ? Wh}' was not this paper sold, 
and the money given to the poor ? ' ' Are you such bad 
political economists as to recommend the giving of money in 
charit}', rather than the dispensing of it in the shape of 
wages? " Why was it not distributed among conscientious 
voters from the ' gem of the say,' and a few thousand votes 
bought bjMt?" Because, probably, the object was to sell 
voters, and not to buy. " Have the Democratic distributers 
played false?" This, I suppose, is a vague hint that some 
Democrats have been interesting themselves in the distribu- 
tion of Straight Republican votes. This is not improba- 
ble. Gardner men also took an interest in that enter- 
prise. But I advise 3'ou not to Scrutinize too closely the 
management of other parties, until you have ijiformed your 
readers that j'our leading Boston organ published, and 
you copied, a forged letter purporting to come from 
Charles Sumner, for the purpose of influencing the elec- 
tion. Has any party in Massachusetts ever done a baser 
thing than that? 

Your general inquiry as to the fate of the Straight Repub- 
licans I can best answer by saying their condition reminds 
me of a picture by John Leech, the illustrator cf "Punch." 
A little bo}' is seen holding a big dog by the collar. Three 
young ladies approach ; and this dialogue ensues : — 



224 "WAimiNGTON : " 

Boy. — " If you please, m', was you a-looking for a little dog? " 

Touwj Ladies. — " Yes ; oh, yes I " 

BoT/. — " Was it a spannel, mum?" 

Ladies. — " Oh, yes ! a most beautiful little spaniel, with very long 
ears." 

Boy. — " Ah, then, mum, it's the same as flew at master's big dog 
here, wot's bin and swallered of it." 

Or, if 30U prefer a more solemn description of our condi- 
tion, let me quote for 3'ou the words of the sacred poet : — 

" In vain we tune our formal songs ; 
In vain we strive to rise.: 
Hosannas languish on our tongues, 
And our devotion dies." 

And now, if you want an epitaph, let me quote a couplet 
from an ancient poem, which is, however, quite popular with 
the most modern of our inhabitants : — 

" Seven, eight. 
Lay 'on straight." ^ 

I am glad that 5'ou have, since the election, plucked up 
courage enough to resume the use of the word "Republican." 
You remind me of the henpecked man, who, after being 
driven under the bed by his wife, at last ventured to look 
out, and, in reply to a threatening shake of the broomstick, 
valiantly said, "As long as I have the spirit of a man, / 
will peek! " This is a good sign. Before the election, the 
unluck}' wight who had dared to intimate that the Banks 
party was Republican would have had his hat knocked over 
his eyes. 

The reign of Know-Nothing terrorism, then, is over, is it? 
Thank God for that! Get a name, and keep it. It don't 
make much difference what it is, — whether Republican, 
American, American-Republican, or Know-Nothing. One 
of the chief advantages the Democratic part}- has had lies 
in the fact that it has had a name which it has stuck to. 



1 The liepublican, to whom this letter was written, was a Banks 
paper, and had probably touched "Warrington" upon the failure of the 
Swan movement; 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 225 

Was it called a Pollc part}', or a Pierce party, or a Buchanan 
partj^, or, in this State, a Morton or a Beach party? Never : 
alwa3-s the Democratic party. The name, and the persist- 
ence of the party in sticking to it, gave the people an idea 
of permanence and power, which no opposition party ever 
was able to impress them with. 

The name of ' ' Republican ' ' has the great merit of mean- 
ing very little ; being, in that respect, almost equal to 
" Whig," which meant nothing at all. Under it, if j'ou will 
adhere to it, and sufficiently ignore principles, j'ou may 
achieve that success which it is the duty ^ of every true man 
to obtain, at whatever hazard. Somebody is reported to 
have said, "You must not be too perpendicular for the sake 
of principle." The beautifully antithetical motto of our 
time is, "You cannot be too horizontal for the salve of suc- 
cess." Thus much from my Growlery. 

[Nov. 4.] 
END OF GOV. GARDNER. '^ 

About five o'clock yesterday afternoon, there was a shout 
in State Street, and a rush of people down toward the Mer- 
chants' Exchange, on a building opposite to which men were 
raising a sign inscribed with the words, — 

" GARDNER, WOLCOTT, & CO., BANKERS." 

One hour after the polls had closed in Boston, and even 
before the returns had come in from the country. Gov. Gard- 
ner had discovered that he was badly beaten, and politically 
dead. It cannot be said that he "died, and made no sign ; " 
for his sisn was the first genuine and official notification of 



1 " Success is a duty." We supposed that this sentiment -was 
properly attributed to Gen. Banks; but, in loolving over an old volume 
of the "Whig Review for 1852, we found the following: " Shall we forget, 
in view of the election just at hand, that, to that army or party entering 
battle in a just cause, success is the first duty, defeat is the first 
danger ? " — W. S. E. in 18o8. 

2 New-York Tribune (letters in). 



226 "WARRINGTON:" 

his death. And there are very few mourners. Even the 
men who dislike and distrust Mr. Banks have a certaili 
amount of satisfaction in the defeat of Gardner ; while the 
scientific \vtiy in which he has been " licked " is calculated 
to excite the admiration of all artists in politics. 

That grim humorist, Thomas De Quince}-, in one of his 
papers on "Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts," 
relates how old Toad-in-thc-IIole came forth from his retire- 
ment on the morning after the great Williams murder in 
RatclifTe Ilighwa}', and proceeded on his wa^- to the club. 
"As soon as he arrived," sa3's the narrator, "he seized every 
man's hand as he passed him, wrung it almost franticallj-, 
and kept ejaculating, ' Whv, now here's something like a 
murder ! This is the real thing : this is genuine. This is 
what you can approve, can recommend to a friend. This, 
says ever}^ man on reflection , — this is the thing that ought 
to be.' Then, looking at particular friends, he said, ' 'Why, 
Jack, how are you? Wh}-, Tom, how are you? Bless me, 
you look ten j-ears younger then when I last saw 3-ou ! ' — 
' No, sir,' I replied : ' it is you who look ten 3'ears younger.' 
— 'Do I? AYell, I shouldn't wonder if I did: such works 
are enough to make us all j'oung.' " Some such feeling of 
exultation is manifested b}' almost ever}' man of taste at the 
exquisite way in which the breath has been beaten out of 
Ilenr}- J. Gardner ; and 3'ct the creature fought almost as 
pluckil}' as the Mannheim baker, whose twenty-seven rounds 
■with the English boxer are also described in the lively pages 
of the " Opium-eater." 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 227 



CHAPTER VI. 

AIsTTISLAVERY MOVEMENT. 

[" 'Warrington's " Letters in Springfield Republican,^ March 20, 1858.] 

A SONG OF EXULTATION. 

Well, Judge Loring's removal is, as the Frcncli sa}', un 
fait accompli, or, as Caleb Cashing said of John Tyler in his 
day, " a fixed fact." While I do not wish to detract from 
the credit which the enemies of this measure are so fond of 
ascribing to the Garrisonians for their share in bringing 
about this auspicious event, I think I ma}' fairly claim that 
no man has more steadily endeavored to bring it about than 
in3'self. I claim that the very first petition for the removal, 
and the very first words urging that petition upon the public 
attention, were from my pen. Being, on the da}- of the 
extradition of Anton}- Burns, one of the editors of "The 
Boston Commonwealth," I saw the dismal and disgraceful 
procession pass down State Street; and, before it could have 
reached the wharf, I placed a petition for Loring's removal 
upon the desk, and published it in an extra edition of tlie 
newspaper. I am happy, also, to believe that I have written 
more columns in favor of the removal than any other person. 

Three times has the legislature responded to the popular 
demand ; and at last the Executive has consented to the 
removal. For one, I thank him and the Council for it ; for 
I believe that the importance of this measure, as a step in 
the progress of the emancipation of the free States from the 

1 Unless otherwise designated. 



228 "WARRINGTON:" 

control of the slave-power, cannot well be over- rated. It 
will take rank with the action of the Wisconsin judiciary', by 
which the infamous Fugitive-slave Law has been killed dead 
in that State. The ban of proscription and outlawr}- is put 
upon ever}' man who shall take a willing part in the enforce- 
ment of that inhuman statute. I know of no other way to 
resist and destroy tlie force of such enactments, but to place 
all such men under such a ban as this. 

Is this treason ? Not at all ; nothing that resembles 
treason. Is it nullification ? Ilardl}- ; nothing more than 
that, at any rate : and nullification is a thing so common, that 
it need not attract much attention. There are more laws 
nullified to-da}' in Massachusetts than there are laws obeyed. 
If this is nullification, it is very indirect. No law is 
violated in the removal of Judge Loring. The measure is 
a conservative one. In 1855, perhaps, it could not have 
been called so with such strict propriety as it now can be. 
Loring himself has made it conservative. He has placed 
himself in the attitude of the law-breaker ; and the governor, 
unless he would bear the sword in vain, must remove him as 
soon as the legislature demanded his removal. Not onl}' 
has Loring violated the law, but his conduct has tended, in 
no inconsiderable degree, to diminish the attachment of the 
people to the life-tenure of the judiciary- ; and, in my opinion, 
his associates of the Probate Court owe much of their present 
trouble to him. But it is as a strict antislaverj' measure, 
not as a conservative triumph, for conservatism is not my 
especial hobby, that I rejoice in this removal. As a declara- 
tion of war against the Fugitive-slave Act, it has great value. 
As a stroke in favor of State rights, it is inestimable. It will 
help teach the people of the State a lesson which they need 
more than the people of an}' otlier Northern State ; viz., that 
it may j-et be necessary — it is becoming ever}'^ daj^ more 
and more necessaiy — to stand up for the rights of the 
States against Federal encroachments, congressional and 
judicial. 

Mr. Stone, senator from Essex, in his speech, took cxtraor- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 229 

dinary pains to show that this removal was to be effected 
because Loring sat in the Antony Burns case, and took 
part in enforcing the Fugitive-slave Act ; and he said it was 
a subterfuge to pretend the contrary. I do not think the 
senator made out his case, though I do not care much if he 
did. Judge Loring' s conduct in the Burns case — the fact 
that he sat in the case at all — was sufficient reason for 
his removal. But that alone is not the reason wh}^ he was 
removed. He is removed for a persistent violation of a 
law of the State. That law grew out of this particular case, 
no doubt, and was a general declaration of State polic}', not 
only for him, but for all other men in his condition. It is 
competent for the legislature to create new offences, and 
provide for their punishment. This is done ever}'- 3'ear. 

Take the offence of Schuylerizing, as it has been called. 
Suppose a railroad-ofucer should defraud his corporation in 
a manner not punishable by law. Is it not competent for 
the legislature to make a law defining and punishing his 
offence? Then suppose he goes on in his fraudulent course, 
and, when the corporation undertakes to turn him out, he 
turns about, and says, " I have violated no law. When I 
began to steal, there was no statute against stealing. Your 
law was got up to meet my particular case ; and now you are 
turning me out under pretext of violating this law, when, 
in fact, you are proscribing me for an act which was not 
contrary to law. You are committing an evasion, guilty of a 
subterfuge." This would be talking no more nonsensically 
than Senator Stone talks now. 

" The Boston Daily Advertiser " admits with great frank- 
ness, that " the Republican party, not onl}' leaders, but rank 
and file, were willing and desirous to let the question lay 
aside ; " and it attributes to " a fiery article ^ in ' The New- 
York Tribune,' " published at a time of " universal silence of 
the Republican press of Massachusetts upon the subject," 
no small influence in changing the policy. This is but say- 

1 Written by "Warrington." 



230 " WARRINGTON: " 

ing that " The Tribune," on this subject, better represented 
the Republican party than the Republican press of the State. 
And no doubt this is time ; for " The Advertiser ' ' speaks 
more than the truth when it sa3's that the leaders and the 
rank and file of the Republican party were willing to evade 
this question. This is more than I, at least, have ever 
charged. It was only a portion of the leaders who tried 
to evade it; and as for the "rank and file," nothing but 
their imperative demand, spoken in the House of Represen- 
tatives b}' such men as John A. Andrew, Robert C. Pitman, 
George D. Wells, Dexter F. Parker, and others, brought the 
quietists up to the issue. Mr. Pitman's bold and successful 
movement to postpone the Consolidation Bill, in order that 
the address might be first considered, was the turning-point 
in the struggle. 

[April 2.] 
SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY. 

Squatter sovereignty was a device to avoid the Wilmot 
Proviso. Old Gen. Cass was at one time ready to vote for 
the proviso ; at least, so it was currently reported. He 
devised the squatter-sovereignty dodge, and developed it in 
the Nicholson Letter. It was substantially accepted by 
Congress in 1850, when they sneaked out of the dat}- of gov- 
erning the Territories, and allowed the squatters and the 
climate to settle what the people intended they should settle. 
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was, I have always 
thought, a logical result of the compromise of 1850. Con- 
gress had abdicated its government of New Mexico and 
Utah : why not, also, of Kansas and Nebraslca? The scenes 
in Kansas were also the legitimate and logical result of 
squatter sovereignt}'. 

All that happened in Kansas was to have been expected. 
Open a field ten acres square in the neighborhood of Spring- 
field, and advertise in " The Republican," that, on a certain 
day, the man who got there first shall have the house-lots into 
which it is divided, and see if you will not have Kansas on 



PEK-POBTRAITS. 231 

a small scale. Squatter sovereignty is, in fact, the abne- 
gation of all law, and the encouragement of anarchy. 

Next comes the Dred Scott decision to repair the mischief. 
The slaveholders — being in danger of having their property 
voted out of their hands, and themselves voted out of the 
territory they expected to control — procure old Mr. Taney 
and his associates to announce to the countr}' as constitu- 
tional law, that the slaveholder cannot be deprived of his 
propertj', no matter what the majority, heretofore supposed to 
be sovereign, may be. 

Gen. Cass was defeated by the Whigs and Barnburners,^ 
because, in compliance with the Southern demand, he had 
yielded up the right of Congress to prohibit slaver}^ in the 
Territories. Now, the struggle of the Republicans is to pre- 
vent the passage of a law by Congress to enforce and sanc- 
tion the right of the slaveholder to his slave, wherever he 
may choose to carry him ; and at a day's journey behind 
the Democratic party comes limping along the Republican 
party, taking up each old issue as it is successively aban- 
doned, and fondling it as something very beautiful and god- 
like. There is one good thing about this new demand of the 
slave-power : it acknowledges the power of Congress over 
the Territories. It is the death-blow of squatter sovereignty, 
the most contemptible of all cheats, and the most ridiculous 
of all humbugs. The antagonist of the new doctrine is not 
squatter sovereignty, but the old Free-Soil and Northern 
Whig Websterian, JefTersonian, and Nathan Dane doctrine of 
prohibition. One side believes in the power and duty of 
Congress to sustain slavery in the Territories ; the other 
side, in its power and duty to 2'>^'ohibit. There is an issue 
worthy of a contest, and to this it must finally come. 

The Republican part}' ma}' unwisely be induced to tag 
round after its rival a few years more, occupying its old 

1 TJie BaniburnersvreTe a New- York party of reformers, who believed 
in burning the barn to destroy tlio rats infesting it, and so destroyed 
their party to get rid of the bad elements. They evidently did not 
believe in " reform within the party." 



232 "WARRINGTON: " 

tents, sleeping in its musty straw, and deeming tents and 
straw fit habitation and bed for tlie gods ; but it will wake 
from the delusion by and by. The people of this countrj- are 
constitutionalists.. Acquiesce in the Dred Scott decision, let 
them settle down in the belief that the Constitution gives the 
slave-owner a right to take his property' to the Territories, 
and you must admit his right to have it protected when it gets 
there. The people will never submit, and they never ought 
to submit, to have a constitutional right voted down by a 
majority, though that majority be as a million to one. No : 
the Republican party's title to support docs not consist in its 
intention to see fair play between slaveholder and non-slave- 
holder. It consists, in the language of Mr. Seward, in "that 
ver}- characteristic, which, in the mouth of scotfers, constitutes 
its great and lasting imbecility and reproach. It lies in the 
fact that it is a part^- of but one idea ; but that idea is a 
noble one, an idea that fills and" expands all generous souls, 
— the idea of equalit}', the equalit}' of all men before human 
tribunals and human laws, as they all are equal before the 
divine tribunal and divine laws." I find no squatter sover- 
eignty in this platform of Mr. Seward's. By this sign we 
conquer. 

[March 31, 1S50.] 
PERSONAL-LIBERTr BILL : ITS DEFEAT. 

All the papers rejoice, though some of them think it 
prudent not to say much, over the defeat of the Personal- 
freedom Bill ; but the laugh will probably be on " the other 
side of the mouth" before a great while. I have seen a 
number of such victories within the last ten or fifteen years. 
Not to mention anj' others, there was the victor}' of Messrs. 
Winthrop, Stevenson, Ilillard, and Compan}-, in 1845, 1846, 
and 1847, over S. C. Phillips, Adams, Sumner, Wilson, and 
Palfrc}'. Within half a dozen j'cars, the jubilant gentlemen 
who won it, and were congratulated over it amidst huzzas and 
bonfires, were laid on the ver}' topmost shelf of retirement, 
where they still remain. There was the victory of Henry J. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 233 

Gardner over the legislature on the Judge Loring question. 
That gentleman received the congratulations of all the Boston 
newspapers; but where is he now? Snugly reposing by the 
side of Winthrop and Stevenson and Hillard. There is a 
tomb of the Capulets for politicians who fail to respond to 
the just demands of the people ; and it yawns for more than 
one aspiring gentleman to-day. When the personal-freedom 
question was first introduced, by means of petitions, into the 
legislature, I did not suppose it stood any chance whatever 
of success ; for I did not suppose the people cared a great 
deal about it. But there is evidently a mistake in this view 
of the subject. The experience in antislavery matters, 
abroad and at home, which we have had for the last half a 
dozen years, has prepared the people for almost any measure 
■which shall set the State in array against slavery. Kansas 
and Charles Sumner are watchwords which are not soon for- 
gotten by the mass of the people ; and the ease with which 
Judge Loring was tumbled out of office, neck and heels, no 
tornado, earthquake, or other convulsion ensuing, according 
to the predictions, has taught them to despise all threats, and 
disregard all croakings. The result of the agitation on this 
new question will be just like the result on all the rest. 
The solicitude which is felt, lest the prospects of the Ee- 
publican part}^ in the Middle and Western States should be 
damaged, is quite amusing. Who are those who are thus 
severely exercised? Men, for the most part, who threw 
away the election of 185G by dabbling in the dirty pool of 
Know-Nothingism ; or, if i\xey did not do this, have pursued 
a cautious and timid and time-serving policy in relation to it 
ever since. 

[Sept. 22.] 
NAMING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. ^ 

All over the United States, from Passamaquoddy to Key 
West, from Galveston to Fraser River, the opposition to the 

1 Republican was the old name of the Democrats. Jefferson was a 
Eepiiblicau, and was elected by Republican votes. This was said to be 
the reason why this name was selected for the new party in 1859. 



234 " WARRING TON: " 

Democratic part}' is known as the " Republican party." 
Perhaps it might as well bo called an}' thing else ; for the 
name means nothing : but that will be the name, and nothing 
can change it. American-Republican is too long for popular 
use ; and there are plenty of other objections to it. But even 
that would be better than none. Think of a baby going three 
years without a name ! How 30U would feel, if a visitor 
should enter your house, and sa}^ to j'our boy (who is, of 
course, a fine bo}', like all other boys), "What is your name, 
my little chap? Eh, eh? Can't j'ou tell? A little bashful, 
I see. Afraid of strangers, perhaps" ! How would you feel, 
I sa}', if such a circumstance should occur, and 3-ou should be 
compelled, in order to justif}' your youngster's silence, to tell 
your guest that 30U hadn't been able yet to make up your 
mind what to call him? He runs alone ; he says his alpha- 
bet ; he drives hoop ; he climbs the fence, and tumbles olf, and 
tears his clothes ; he is known to all the boj's in the neighbor- 
hood ; he is preparing to " lick " one of them next year : but 
3'ou haven't yet provided him with a name. Perhaps you are 
afraid of offending one of his uncles, if you don't call him 
George ; and his grandfather, if 30U don't call him Ilezekiah ; 
and his mother, if you combine the two, and call him George 
Ilezekiah : so 3-ou dall3' and putter, and the poor boy grows 
up, till the other bo3's, who must call him something, give 
him a horrid nickname, and send him home cver3' night to 
bur}' his face in his mother's sympathizing apron, and be 
sent weeping to bed. You find out at last that ^-ou had better 
have called him any thing, — Ned or Nebuchadnezzar, Eli or 
Epaminondas, Zeno, Zero, Xerxes, Lycurgus, or any thing 
else, — rather than have him go without a name. 

What a bother it is, when 30U are accosted by some New- 
Yorker or Illinoisian, and are asked if you are a Republican, 
to be obliged to say, " I belong, sir, to the party which is 
opposed to the present corrupt National Administration and 
the aggressions of the slave-power, and is in favor of the gen- 
eral policy of the present State Administration" ! — "When 
is the Republican Convention to be held? " — "Don't know ; 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 235 

but we ai'e to have a convention of all the legal voters of 
Massachusetts who are opposed to the present corrupt National 
Administration and the aggressions of the slave-power, and 
who are in favor of the general policy of the present State 
Administration, at Fitchburg, on the 20th." — "Whom do the 
Republicans of your State prefer for President ? " — " Can't 
say ; but the party which is opposed to the present corrupt 
National Administration and the aggressions of the slave- 
power, and in favor of the general policy of the present State 
Administration, probably looks with some favor upon Gov. 
Banks." — " Why, what do you mean by that gabble ? Isn't 
that the Republican party ? If it is, why don't you say so?" 
— "Well, I s'pose it is ; but the fact is, our State Committee 
are a little afraid to say what they mean ; and, though the 
word ' Republican ' is in common conversational use, we can't 
use it in conventions and committees and official documents 
just yet." — " Why not ? " — " Oh ! Mr. So-and-So says 
we mustn't offend the Americans ; and ' The Daily Buzzer ' 
thinks we'd better use the old formula for the present." — 
"Well, if your committee can't give the baby a name, the 
State Convention ought to do it the very fii'st opportunity." 
And so I think. 

There is not much to be said about the Republican State 
Convention. It was held at a bad place. The State Com- 
mittee has no right to go out of its way to accommodate any 
local demand for a convention. Some portions even of 
Worcester County were unrepresented, because the delegates 
could not go to Fitchburg without being away from home 
two nights. If it bad not been for the convenient attendance 
of senators and representatives, there would have been a 
hundred towns unrepresented. Let me here sa}' that I under- 
stand that Mr. John B. Alley's opposition to the Lynn resolu- 
tion was not because it demanded a name for the party, but 
because he conceived that it contained a censure of the State 
Committee. I understand him to sa}' that he is in favor of 
adopting the name Republican, and took ground openly on 
that side of the question. I am pleased to make this correc- 



236 " WAIiUINGTON: " 

tion. I believe the resolutions satisfy the public demand that 
the party shall be chvistened. "The Bee " still insists that it 
will l)e perfectl}' in order for an}- man -n-ho dislikes the name 
Republican to call himself American-Republican, or Oppo- 
sition. I certainly agree with "The Bee." There is no law 
against a man's doing absurd things, and making a fool of 
himself ; and if, after the authoritative and unanimous adop- 
tion of the Republican name by the Convention, an}- member 
of the party insists that he is a Republican with a prefix, 
there can be no controversy about his right so to do. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 237 



CHAPTER VII. 

JOHN BEOWN AND PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

[""Warrington's" Letters in Springfield Republican,! Nov. 3, 1859.] 

JOHN BROWN OF OSSAWATTOMIE. 

I AM loath to write a letter without saying a word about 
John Brown ; but he is one of your every-daj^ topics : ever}'- 
bod}^ is thinliing of him, and talking about him, and thinli- 
ing and talking better than I can. I believe he has to-day 
more of the popular respect and sj^mpathy than any other 
man in the country. Thoreau said one good thing; viz., 
" The government has no right to hang a man whose con- 
science tells him he is right. Who can tell, in such a case, 
that the government is right, and the man wrong ? "When 
government takes the life of a man without the assent of his 
own conscience, it is a step towards its own dissolution." 

Whether Virginia has a right to hang Brown or not, she 
cannot afford to do it. She may be compelled to do so by 
an overpowering necessity, but must lose by it, and slavery 
must lose hy it. I do not agree that this enterprise was a 
failure. Nothing is a failure which compels the people, 
North and South, to look at the slavery question. It is the 
most amazing thing in the world, that, with four millions of 
slaves, — who must, within the life of some of us, increase, at 
the present ratio, to twenty, thirt}', or forty millions, unless 
there is some check, — there should be any thing else thought 
of or talked about. Do you suppose there were any Edward 

1 Unless otherwise designated. 



238 " WA URINGTON: " 

Everetts, or Dr. Blagdens, or Robert Winthrops, going about 
the streets of Pompeii and Ilerculanenm, hushing up agitation 
concerning the dreadful portents that hung around Mount 
"Vesuvius? Brown is a portent that needs to be considered. 
He is an indication of the onward progress of the abolition 
feeling in this country. Every da}', more and more abolition- 
ists are coming upon the stage of action, and more and more 
conservatives and doughfaces are going off. Ever}' day 
increases the danger of border wars, stampedes, and insur- 
rections. The government is powerless to prevent them, 
though it ma}' now and then hang a few of the actors therein. 
The question is one that must be met. 

John Brown is a genuine hero. Don't let us nickname 
him. He is not very " old ; " and it is a pity if the emergen- 
cies of the Republican party are such, that he must go to his 
death with the label " Crazy" upon his forehead. He has 
got to die : let not his reputation for heroism be taken from 
him by calling him insane. I wish we could do something 
for him ; for he is worthy of all the choice gifts, such as the 
children symbolize when they sing, — 

" Uncle John is very sick : 
What shall wc send him? 
Three gold wishes, 
Three gold kisses. 

What shall wc send them in? 

In a golden saucer. 
What shall we tie them with? 

With a golden garter. 
Wlio shall wo send them by? 

By the governor's daughter," &c. 

God bless Ossawattomie Brown ! 

The sympathy for Brown, which so pervades the people of 
the free States, is, in a great degree, owing to his personal 
courage, piety, and conscientiousness, but also, in great 
degree, due to the fact that he was engaged in one of the 
most chivalric and noble enterprises ever undertaken by man. 
He threw himself against the power of Virginia and the 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 239 

United States; and for what? To steal land, like Lopez 
and "Walker ? No ; but to free so man}'' as he could of a 
long-suffering and trodden-down people. For this, and for 
no selfish purpose, he risked and lost his own life. Purer 
and nobler philanthrop}'' was never known in the historj' of 
the world. The people have not only a profound respect 
for Brown, but hundreds and thousands of them bless his 
memory for the lesson he has taught them of self-sacrifice in 
this a2;e of self-seekius; and cowardice. 



[Jan. 5, 18G0.] 
EXECUTION OF JOHN BROWN. 

The execution of John Brown — now, I suppose, a fixed 
fact, if an executioner can be found with courage enough to 
place the rope round his neck — will tend to induce in members 
of Congress of both parties a spirit averse to compromises. 
This will be the case, at any rate, if the representatives par- 
take of the spirit of the people in any degree. The people, 
in their workshops and on tlicir farms, are thinking and talk- 
ing of John Brown. Our great author, Irving, is unfortunate 
in his death, in one respect ; for men get no time to write or 
read the eulogies which he deserves. Within forty-eight 
hours, the most genuine representative of the antislavery 
idea is to be hanged for his efforts to carr}' that idea into 
practical results. I do not say he is a truer man than thou- 
sands of other men scattered all over the North : perhaps 
he was not so wise as many of them. But this, at any rate, 
is true of him : professing to be in favor of giving freedom 
to the black race, he went to work in a straightforward way 
to smite off their shackles with his own hand. He did not 
wait for the slow movement of ideas : he did not mean, if 
he could help it, to " die without the sight." He Avent right 
at it, reasoning logicall}^, I suppose, in this way : " Here are 
four millions of people to be freed : I am determined at least 
to free one of them for my share. If every antislavery man 
will do as much, the work will be well-nigh accomplished." 



240 "WARRINGTON:" 

And he did more than his share. He brought off out of 
Missouri a considerable number : pass them to his credit. 
His example will inspire heroism in hundreds of others to 
make their escape : pass that, also, to the credit side. In 
addition to all this, he did much towards the freedom of the 
white race in Kansas. Possibl}' that State would not have 
been free without him. Add to this the immense work which 
is now being wrought in the hearts of the people by his recent 
life and his death, and he is fairl}' entitled to be named the 
great emancipator. 

"We are surely the basest of ingrates, we antislaverj^ men 
of the North, if we do not reverence his name and bless his 
memor}'. A thoroughl}' honest and righteous man, a thor- 
oughly sane man too, or, if insane, insane only as all honest 
men are insane, only as ever}' man who stands up for princi- 
ples against apparent interest is insane. Still less is he 
criminal. He has broken the law, no doubt ; but to break 
the law is not necessaril}- to commit a crime. The}' broke 
the law who released Jerr}' at S3'racuse, and Shadrach at 
Boston ; but nobodj' thinks them criminals. Men have even 
shed blood contrary to law, who are not reckoned as crimi- 
nals : nay, hundreds of them, in all ages of the world, have 
been cherished and honored as martyr-heroes. Virginia 
punishes John Brown as a murderer and traitor ; but he is 
neither : he is a hero and a martyr. 

" Woe for the hour when it is crime 

To plead the poor dumb bondman's cause; 

When all that makes the heart sublime, 

The glorious throbs that conquer time, 
Are traitors to our cruel laws ! 

He strove among God's suffering poor 

One gleam of brotherhood to send : 
The dungeon oped its hungry door 
To give the truth one martyr more, 

Then shut : and here behold the end 1 " 



PEN-PORTEAITS. 241 

[May 24.] 

PRESIDENT Lincoln's NOinNATioN. 

"The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both 
Congress and courts." 

Abraham Lincoln has announced the irrepressible con- 
flict as distinctl}', if not as happilj*, as Seward. He has 
fought a gallant campaign with the representative of all that 
is bad, ruffianly, John Ileenanish, in American politics, — 
Stephen A. Douglas ; and, so far as I can see, has not 
lowered the standard of straight-out Republicanism one inch. 
He has courage, and will never let go : — 

" The mongrel's hold may slip; 
But only crowbars loose the bull-dog's grip." 

"We have got to defend all his radicalisms and ultraisms. 
That one sentence I have quoted will be dinned into the ears 
of a million of voters a million of times between now and 
election-day ; and it will be an education worth having. 
Here is the apostle of genuine popular sovereignty. He is 
not one of 3'our sham sovereignty men ; no Douglas, who 
don't care whether slavery is voted up or down ; no Eli 
Thayer, who pledges himself to keep the negro out of Con- 
gi'ess, and strilvcs hands with the border-ruffians to defeat 
Grow's territorial bills, and tries to keep the Declaration of 
Independence out of the Republican platform. He stands, 
as I understand him, on the old Whig and Free-Soil ground 
of prohibition, b}^ one means or another, or all means, or 
at all hazards. I trust his letter of acceptance will not 
diminish the confidence of the antislavery men in him. If 
he "trims," he is lost. 

Then hurrah for Lincoln and Hamlin ! " Abe Lincoln," 
if 30U please. " Honest Abe Lincoln," if 3'ou please ; though 
I don't lay much stress upon this appellation. If Lincoln is 
not something more than honest, he is not fit for President. 
The men who stroll into mock-auction shops, and are vic- 
timized by the Peter Funks, are " honest : " the Vermonters 
and New-Hampshire men who wandered off to Chicago, and 



242 "WAREINGTOX: " 

believed Horace Greele}-, and Andrew Curlin, and Henry S. 
Lane, when they said "William II. Seward could not be 
chosen, were "honest," but, oh, how jolly green! "Abe," 
I am confident, is something more than "honest." "Abe 
Lincoln, the rail-splitter," if you please; for I suppose 
human nature is the same now as it was in 1840, when we 
shouted ourselves hoarse for Harrison, and decorated log- 
cabins, and rolled "big balls" through the streets. Then 
here it is : — 

Hurrah for Lincoln and Hamlin! 

Hurrah for the defeat of the Fogies ! 

Hurrah for the downfall of Know-Nothingism I 

Hurrah for a sound Ilepublican platform I 

Hurrah for a party name ! 

But 

A wail for William H. Seward! 
A wail for party cowardice and folly! 
A wail for opportunities lost! 
"Woe is me, Alhama!" 

All these, however, awail nothing. Let the hurrahs predomi- 
nate. By the way, I have seen Barry's picture of Lincoln ; 
and I am satisfied that he is as ugly as his most enthusiastic 
admirers claim. But he looks like a man of ability and 
substantiality, as he is. His ugliness won't hurt him any. 
If he gets the votes of all the ugly men, he will have an 
immense majorit}' ; for the male human race, in its common 
aspects, is by no means beautiful. Yet most boj's are hand- 
some. Wh}^ don't thc}' grow up handsome? It is hard 
work, and povert}', and rum and tobacco, and selfishness, 
and pride and vanity, and all the other and foolish propensi- 
ties and bad habits, which so play the dense with their good 
looks. Lincoln looks like a man who had inherited rough 
features, and had kept them rough by a hard scrimmage with 
life ; but he is not half so ugl}- as some of the men who pass 
for handsome, and who were born handsome, and lived 
so till the}' were old enough to begin to smoke bad cigars, 
and "chaw" nasty tobacco, and drink " rot-gut." "We 
have had uglier presidential candidates than Lincoln. Do 



PEN-POETEAITS. 243 

you remember "Old Zack's" lip? .Wasn't that horrid? 
Yet he went in over the unctuous Cass and the smooth Van 
Buren, and was a better man than either ; and I don't com- 
pliment him any by saying this. 

[Sept. 13.] 
THE BELL-EVERETT^ PARTT. 

As I was standing near Scollay's Building about two 
o'clock 3'esterday afternoon, waiting for the horse-car, I 
heard a great ding-donging. " What the d — I's that?" said 
a man b}- my side. We dodged round the corner ; and there 
we saw, coming up Court and turning into Tremont Street, 
a vehicle drawn by several horses, and containing an im- 
mense bell, the rope of which a stout man was vigorously 
pulling, and from which the clapper-tviip was proceeding. 
"Oh, Bell and Everett!" said I; "meeting at Roxbury 
to-night." My neighbor doubled himself up as if he had 
a severe pain in his bowels, such as one might have after 
eating a hearty supper of milk, cucumbers and vinegar, 
green currants and gooseberries, and lobster-salad ; roared 
three times, "Haw, haw, haw!" and vanished into a car 
bound to the South End. I looked over to Gi-ay's iron 
building, and saw three men extended on the sidewalk in a 
fit — of laughing. I know 'em: the}' were 3'oung lawj-ers, 
Lincoln men, feigning to be pleased with the demonstration. 
The bell passed on, the ringer pulling most vehementl3\ I 
could not recognize him, and therefore cannot positively say 
whether it was George Lunt, George Hillard, George Curtis, 
Leverett Saltonstall, Daniel Warren, Augustus C. Carey, 
Henry J. Gardner, B. Flint King, Amos A. Lawrence, 
Samuel H. Wallc}*, or Van Duzeubury. There were two 
men on board : I could not distinctly recognize what the 
second man was doing ; but I think he was holding out his 

1 Bell-Everett party. John Bell and Edward Everett were the hun- 
ker, proslaverj', Democratic candidates for President, in oppcsition to 
Abraham Lincoln, in 18G0. 



244 "WARRINGTON: " 

hat for contributions. People all along Tremont Row were 
stopping to look : it did not take them long to catch the 
joke; for "Bell and Everett" was painted on the wagon. 
The^' wagged their heads, rolled their e^-es, shifted their 
quids from one side to the other, chuckled or sneered, and 
passed on. It was too bad to laugh at it. A more orderl}' 
and respectful funeral procession I have never seen, though 
the mourners were few. I would suggest a different kind 
of carriage, something in the catafalque st^ie ; and here is 
an inscription which would be suitable, from one of Dr. 
Holmes's poems : — 

"Ding-dong! ding-dong! 
The world is in a simmer, like a sea 
Over a pent volcano. Woe is me 
All the day long!" 

This last, "Woe is me all the day long!" concentrates 
the whole phiJosoph}' of the Avhole Bell-Everett party, and is 
the substance of their ten thousand speeches and letters and 
editorial articles. But, though there is no jollity in these 
fellows, they keep other people good-natured. Talk of 
Hood! Well "Hood's Own," and "Up the Rhine," and 
the "Ode to Rae Wilson," and the punning ballads, will 
make you laugh, but not more than one of Lunt's editorials ; 
and Charles Lamb and Sydney Smith never made better 
jokes than George T. Curtis in his Roxbury speech. 

In 1852 I was a good deal interested in the canvass for 
President, going in strongly for Ensign Stebbiugs ; and I 
made a calculation for "The Carpet-Bag," which was his 
organ, showing that he would receive something more than 
twenty thousand electoral votes, — not mere popular votes, of 
which a man may receive half a million, and yet have no 
good from them. He was going to receive the vote of Maine 
on the strength of his letter to the Maj'or of Saccarap, declar- 
ing himself to be in favor of the Maine Law, and against its 
enforcement, and so on. I mention this here, partly to illus- 
trate Curtis' s speech, and partly to show that the stand- 
ing joke of Stebbiugs and the Maine Law, which is now used 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 245 

pretty often in the newspapers, is " my thunder." "A poor 
thing, but my own," as Touchstone says of Audry. Now, it 
turned out that Stcbbings got no votes. What was a feeble 
attempt at waggery in 1852 is deadly earnest with George T. 
Curtis in 1860. His Stebbings is Edward Everett ; and he is 
as grave as a judge, (and he is a judge : didn't he adjudi- 
cate a man into slaver}^ ten years ago ?) — as grave as a 
judge, in his attempt to prove, that, if Mr. Bell is not elected 
President, Mr. Everett will be elected Vice-President by the 
Senate, and so will become President. 

The venerable Beli-Everetts came out on Monday before 
election jubilant ; but on Tuesday how changed were they ! 
Men of six feet two had sunk to five feet three ; men of 
two hundred and twenty pounds were reduced to a hundred 
and sixt}'. " \yh3', sir, j'ou look thin! " was the common 
remark. "Ah, y%s\ I've Avorked too hard this summer; 
didn't take m}' usual trip to Newport ; nothing permanent: 
shall pick up in a few dajs." — " Well, j'ou'd better go home 
and rest a while." So they went home as soon after two 
o'clock as possible, drank catnip-tea, and cursed "The 
Courier" till bedtime. Some of them took it still more 
seriousl}^ to heart. Large numbers of them made their last 
wills, in view of impending dissolution, remembering the 
Southern Aid Society in their affliction ; that being the only 
religious organisation ]Derfectly sound on the question of 
slavery, and certain so to remain. The Tract Society and 

the American Board may apostatize ; but the Eev. L 

F will circulate his doughface gospel as long as he lives. 

[Nov. 8.] 

PRESIDENT Lincoln's election. 
Well, Lincoln is elected ; the Democratic party is finally 
split to pieces, and destroyed ; and the Bell-Everett party is 
shovelled underground, — "dirt to dirt." The beauty of 
the thing is, that this " Constitutional Union " part}", having 
consorted with the only disunion party in the country, must 



246 "WARRINGTON: " 

stand by the character and reputation wliich it has won for 
itself. Tiie Republican party is, from this moment at least, 
the part}' upon which Constitutionalists and Unionists must 
rely. I think the Republican party is now so well founded 
here, that no paper b}' abandoning it can harm it much, and 
no paper b}' joining it can add greatly to its vote. Different 
schools of the part}' ma}^ be aided or impeded b}- particular 
presses ; and the results of conventions ma^- be affected some- 
times, but seldom the results of general elections. Massa- 
chusetts is Republican, now and forever; and, though there 
may be occasional re-actions, the Republicanism of the State 
will rise higher and higher every j'ear, till it is universally 
accepted as Christianit}* is, and there will be no controversy 
as to its essential doctrines. B}- and by, George Lunt and 
"The Boston Courier" will be conservative Republicans, 
fighting for moderation in the ranks, and against the new 
lights, who will gradually' encroach upon it, and beat it, as 
usual. 

The melanchol}' days have evidently come for Lunt, the 
saddest of the year ; though all days are sad enough. 
"Autumn's doing brown " for him, sure enough. Perhaps, 
however, he may get into the House of Representatives from 
Ward Four ; for I see he has got the nomination. If the 
Bell-Everett coalitionists are going to elect anybody, I hope 
it will be Lunt. Next to having an able and popular man 
of your own part}' in the legislature, it is best to have an 
unpopular man of the opposite side. Lunt wouUl be the 
laughing-stock of the House in less than a week. If he has 
not "the most winning way of making people hate him," 
he has, at least, a great facility for exciting mirth and con- 
tempt. Mr. Hillard's sarcastic compliment upon him is one 
of the best things of the kind extant. He said that Mr. 
Lunt must be loved before he could be full}' known. That 
is so. And here, l)y the wa}', let me tell a stor}' of a dis- 
tinguished literary lady who once sent an article to " Tho 
Courier," which i)leased the editors so greatly, that they 
asked her, through INIr. Hillard, what the}' should pay her 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 247 

to insure from her regular contributions. "Bring me George 
liunt's head in a chai'ger," said she. 



[Dec. 5.] 

TREMONT-TEMPLE MOB. THE RECENT RESPECTABLE RIOT.^ 

I use the word " riot " in no offensive sense, but for conven- 
ience. Tlie rioter of one da}' is a revohitionar}' patriot the 
next 3'ear ; and, if these gentlemen succeed in permanently 
putting down free speech in Boston, I shall, after the cus- 
tomary usage, change the designation. But as the experi- 
ment remains doubtful, with the chances at present against 
them, I will stick to the Avord I have used. Certain men had 
hired the hall, and were presumed to be able and willing to 
pay for it, for the purpose of discussing the best means of 
abolishing slaver}'. Certain other men made an irruption 
into it, violently and riotously took possession of it, wrested 
it from its purpose, in fact burglariously entered and stole 
it ; and the police, instead of interrupting the process, pro- 
ceeded with the utmost coolness to dispossess the original 
and rightful owners. It is no wonder, that, when the maj'or 
and the police have thus got their heads turned tops3'-turvy on 
the subject of their dut}^ of preserving the peace of the city, 
the insanit}' should also seize the juries, the district-attorneys, 
and other officers of the courts, so that there should be, as 
there has been for the last year, almost complete immunity 
for rogues and rascals of all sorts. I do not mean to blame 
the police. The}' were acting under orders, or sui)posed they 
were ; though it was hard to find out what the Orders were. 

Dr. S. G. Howe, finding himself excluded from the hall, 
— at a time, too, when there was no greater disorder than is 
frequent in political meetings, — demanded the reason ; and 
was told by the police-officer at the door, that the chief had 
given orders that no one should be admitted. The doctor 
proceeded to the mayor's office, and there found the chief, 

1 Now- York Tribune (letters in). 



248 " WARRINGTON: " 

who told him he had given no such orders. The fact is, 
probabh', that he had forgotten all about it, or had given all 
sorts of contradictory orders, or had given no orders ; and 
the officer at the door -was doing his best on his own respon- 
sibilit}'. An incapable officer is always the worst of rioters 
in a disturbance of this kind ; and if somebody had read the 
Riot Act to the chief, and dispersed him, he would have 
done good service. His subordinates (plague on it ! I keep 
speaking as if he was not himself the most ridiculous of 
subordinates, servile to all the earthly influences) were one 
moment hustling a man out, and the next moment returning 
him, and apologizing for their roughness ; and Mr. F. B. 
Sanborn, the lawful chairman, was actually rescued out of 
the hands of one officer by two others, who returned him 
safely into the hall from which he had been rudely ejected. 
Most of them were good-natured and clever fellows, who 
would have gladl}' done tlieir dut}' if they had been properly 
guided. 

But I am straying from m}^ purpose, which was to give 
you the names of some of the solid and respectable men who 
undertook to " set Boston right." The vindication of Boston 
was, unfortunateh', left to such small fry as Oliver Stevens, 
and Thomas Farmer, and Cherringtou, and young Choate, and 
Jo. Bell, and Harry Ilorton, and Watson Freeman, jun., and 
the mass of named and nameless rifT-raff that followed them. 
It would have been a cheerful and pleasant sight if we 
could have seen Mr. Everett himself raising his clarion 
voice and his quivering finger in behalf of the countrj' at 
this crisis of her fate ; or Mr. Hallett interposing his burly 
form, like Mr. Webster's "broad shield of the Constitution," 
between our united country and James Redpath ; or Mr. 
Winthrop winding his cloak about him with one hand, and 
with the other striking a heart}' blow from the shoulder for 
the Union and for the laws ; or Mr. Whitney encouraging 
his squad of gangers and inspectors ; or Mr. Lunt piously 
lifting up his voice, and asking the blessing of the God he 
ignorautly worships on the good work ; or Col. Greene 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 249 

doing penance for his early errors in the cause of free 
speech in Abner Kneeland's case, by helping to mob men 
as unpopular as Kneeland ever was. But, alas ! these men 
seem to have been satisfied with urging on the mob, or with 
the still more ignominious part of rejoicing over what it 
accomplished. 

Mr. Richard S. Fay and Mr. J. Murray Howe were the 
most conspicuous persons among the rioters. Mr. Fay was 
de facto chairman for a time, and Mr. Howe thought he 
occupied the same position afterward. Mr. Fay is a wealthy 
man, resident in L3'nn. Though not a Boston man, he evi- 
dentl}^ feels as great a responsibilit}' for the existence and 
success of our experiment of government as the solidest 
man we have, even Mr. G. T. Curtis himself. Col. Jonas 
H. French, who was very active in the good work, was one 
of Gov. Gardner's aides. Thomas H. Perkins, a broker, 
was very lively, compromising his dignity so much, I am 
informed, as to assault a negro. Mr. William D. Swan, 
book-publisher, and two 3'oung Swans, were heart}' sj^mpa- 
thizers. So was Mr. Arthur Gilman, architect — of his own 
fortune as well as of sundry churches, and an excellent 
stor3'-teller. William C. Fa}-, described sarcastically by 
"The Traveller" as a gentleman of "great respectability 
and considerable prominence," Charles A. Brewer and 
Michael Scanlan, and Isaac P. Wainwright and Charles C. 
Hobbs, are men of less note ; and I do them a service in 
bringing them before the public in such respectable com- 
pany. In addition to Choate, jun., and Jo. Bell, the bar 
was represented by B. F. Russell and Oliver Stevens. Per- 
haps these are not the highest names at the Boston bar ; but 
the}' may be considered rising men after Monday's work. 
Mr. Horton (before mentioned) is of the firm of F. Skinner 
& Co., and is a worthy representative of dry-goods principles. 
John C. Boyd, William C. Rogers (a Salem merchant), J. 
H. and W. F. Loud, J. T. Coolidge, jun., Charles Larkin, 
William J. Parsons (son of Prof. Parsons), Plunkett, 
Moone}', and Marble (custom-house officers, very noisy and 



250 "WARRINGTON:" 

disagreeable), "William Aspinwall of the old "WTiig State 
Committee, and others, are mentioned to me as having been 
irritant in season and out of season. Then there were 
Amorys, Heaths, Randalls, and so on, too numerous to 
mention. 

If 1 have omitted any names, I shall gladl}', on proper 
application, suppl}- them ; and if any gentleman disclaims 
the honor, or feels himself unworthy of the choice companion- 
ship I have given him, I slinll take pains to make the neces- 
sar3' correction, so that the future chronicler who searches 
the files of "The Tribune," out of which history will be 
written, ma}' not fall into any errors. You will see that all 
professions and classes were represented. The shoulder- 
hitters were ver}- strong. The chief of police remarked con- 
cerning one of them, that he deserved to be arrested every 
night of his life : he let him alone, however, on this occa- 
sion. One gentleman, who is under indictment for an 
attempt to kidnap, was observed to be active in the good 
work. 

The literary class was represented. One gentleman was 
pointed out to me as the author of a work on " The Evasion 
of Payments," " The Autobiograph}- of a Jeremy Diddler," 
"Handbook for Swindlers," " Stealing without a Master," 
" Bird's-eye View of Boston, with Particular Directions 
how to Dodge a Policeman," and other elementaiy works 
which I have never seen, and which I suspect are still 
unpublished. 

People generally treat the afTiiir as a mere outbreak of 
riotous 30ung men. They are very much mistaken. It ivas 
part of the Southern Rebellion. The Northern cities are full 
of traitors and secessionists, who would be glad to see an 
outbreak at Washington before the 4lh of ]\Iarcli, and the 
capital seized and held bv a slaveholding cabal as a "pro- 
visional government." If Caleb Cashing, and George B. 
Loring, and Fernando AVood, and the custom-houses, arc not 
in the conspiracy, their actions belie them. I believe there 
will be such an outbreak, and that this riot in Boston is part 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 251 

of the machinery designed to assure the men who will engage 
in it that they will not be put down by the people of the 
North. Northern people will have more than they can do to 
take care of themselves. 

[Dec. 20.] 
PRESIDENT BUCHANAN, AND GENERAL PRATING. 

Mr. Buchanan proposes to have a general prajing. When? 
Not now, but on the 4th of Januaiy, — more than a fortnight 
hence. If praying is going to do an}' good, why not pray 
now ? The old gentleman should merely have sent out his 
rescript, saying, " Pray immediatelj', eveiy mother's son of 
you! " Suppose the captain or chaplain of a ship should 
call the crew and passengers together, and sa}' to them, 
" Gentlemen and ladies, we are on the rocks, and in danger 
of breaking up every instant ; our boats have been washed 
overboard, or stove to pieces ; there is no sail in sight ; and 
there is no help for us but in the merc}^ of God : therefore 
I suggest that on "Wednesday next we have a prayer-meet- 
ing on the quarter-deck (or on the rocks, as the case may 
be), to see if we cannot get some relief in that way." 

The President's proclamation makes me think that the 
danger is not imminent. He draws a vivid picture, to be sure, 
of the perils of the country, — disunited States, starving 
populations, and all that ; but I think he is more frightened 
than he need to be. You perhaps remember the story of the 
sensation orator in troublous times, who wrought upon his 
hearers and himself so powerfull}', that, a slight crack being 
heard amid the stillness, they and he fell to the ground in 
awe and trembling, believing his prophecies had come to 
pass, and that the final crash had come. But, after they 
had " recovered from their swound," they ascertained, that, 
instead of the crack of doom, it was onl}' the breaking of the 
orator's suspenders wliich had alarmed tliem. Old Buck has 
broken his suspenders, and thinks the world is coming to an 
end. Or does he, like a good many others, mean to pray 
for the sake of getting courage to do some new mean thing ? 



252 "WARRINGTON:" 

or, having determined upon the mean thing, reckon upon 
deceiving the people into acquiescence by making them 
believe that the}- acted in obedience to heavenly impulses, 
and that the Lord has countenanced their treacher}- and cow- 
ardice? Which is it? AVhen some people who believed in 
the efficacy of prayer without work applied to Palmerston 
to appoint a fast, in order to get rid of the cholera, or to 
diminisli its ravages, the premier wrote a letter which 
shocked some people, and pleased a good many others, tell- 
ing them that they had better go home and attend to their 
ventilation and drainage, and keep themselves cool and 
clean ; and I have never heard that anybod}- supposes the 
good God was otfended at this, or that the sickness was 
ueedlessl}' prolonged. 

Fonblanque, of " The London Examiner," wrote an arti- 
cle on " General Mournings," which I should like to quote 
from if I had it at hand. The drift of it was, that it was 
cruel, in hard times, to ask the people to give up one whole 
da3''s earnings for any such purpose as mourning for the 
dead. And the advice is as good in relation to a general 
fast. Fonblanque suggested, that, if we must lose a day in 
this Avay, we might make it useful by following the old 
fashion, in cases of grief, of rending the clothes. That, at 
any rate, would help the tailors and cloth-makers. It would 
be an edifying spectacle to see Mr. Buchanan himself, as the 
representative man of the country-, who has done more than 
all other men to l)ring it into disgrace and peril, indicating 
his contrition and his need of foi'givcness b^- knocking a hole 
in the crown of his hat, or tearing to pieces the " ampler 
parts " of his ample satinet trousers. As we have got a 
thaw upon us, there would be no great harm if he was liter- 
ally (and not merely metaphorically, as was "Wolsey) left 
" naked to his enemies." 



PEN-POBTRAITS. 253 



CHAPTER VIII. 

IN WAR TIME. 

[" "Wan-ington's " Letters in Springfield Republican,^ Jan. 17, 1861.] 

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 

Again the state of the countiy ! But there is excuse 
enough for writing on this subject, and no excuse for writing 
on an}' other. Ever}- man ought to write to ever}' other man 
on it ; and the price of stationery ought to be increased a 
hundred per cent by the overwhelming demand. I have 
this advantage, through your kind permission, that I can 
speak to your twenty thousand subscribers, and add my 
voice to yours in favor of firmness and boldness and pru- 
dence and courage and conciliation, and all the other virtues, 
in this crisis. How many skulking, compromising creatures 
there are ! For a truce, for a little ease, a chance to live 
three or four years longer in peace, men are willing to entail 
on their children a severer struggle than this, or, on their 
remotest posterity, all the evils of a slaveholding despotism. 
Men will "toil and moil, poor muck- worms ! " cheat in 
trade, run hazards at the pole or in the tropics, insure their 
feeble lives, for the benefit of their children ; but, for the sake 
of peace for a day or two, they will submit to the most 
infamous bargains with sin, and compromises with treason. 
Shame on them! AYhat right have they thus to make' pos- 
terity suffer for their cowardice ? 

If the Southern Whigs had stood fu'm against the Nebraska 

1 Unless otherwise designated. 



254 "WARKIXGTOy: " 

Bill in 1854, vre should have been spared 18G1 ; if "Webster 
had stood firm against the compromises of 1850, we should 
have been spared the Nebraska Bill ; if the men of 1820 had 
insisted on the slavery prohibition in Missouri's case, we 
should have been spared the concessions of 1850 ; and, to 
go farther back, if the framers of the Constitution had 
carried out the purposes stipulated in the preamble, and 
made such provisions as would insure the blessings of libert}' 
to all men in the countr}', we should have had no trouble in 
1820. And if we are true now, and refuse to j'ield to the 
compromises which are showered upon Congress every day 
by the Crittendens, Biglers, Hunters, Etheridges, we shall 
save the men of 1870 a more grievous struggle than this. 
" They enslave their children's children who make com- 
promise witli sin." 

" Oh for an hour of Webster ! " said Mr. Choate. " Oh 
for an hour of Choate ! " saj's Lunt, hoping, I suppose, that, 
ten 3'ears hence, some snivelling patriot will read "The 
Courier's " files, and exclaim, " Oh for an hour of Lunt ! " 
I sa}-, " Oh for an hour of government of some sort, no matter 
what! " Gov. Banks told us in his valedictor}- address how 
cheapl}' we got along. I think every man, woman, and 
child pays nine dollars in taxes for national, state, and local 
protection. I suppose a greater part of this goes to the 
support of the General Government ; saj-, in round numbers, 
two dollars for each person. An average family, like j'ours 
or mine, pa3's about twelve dollars. And what do we get 
for it? I suppose we should be glad to get off without any 
real, tangible benefits in dollars and cents ; but we have at 
least the right to ask that the government we help to sup- 
port shall hold itself together, and not allow the rebellious 
members to break it up. If it can do nothing else, it 
ought to do this at least. But what' do we see? A govern- 
ment absolutely powerless, the laughing-stock of the world, 
a pauper government, an idiot government, ne'er-do-well, 
feeble-minded, non compos, worth}' of guardianship by the 
strongest mnn. Gen. Scott would be justified by the country 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 255 

in taking care of it, and keeping it out of harm's way for 
a season. Suppose crazy George III. had had nobod}^ to 
take care of him, what would have become of England? 
Oh for a man at the head to say to South Carolina what 
Menenius Agrippa said to the turbulent citizens of Rome ! I 
refer you to Coriolanus. Menenius Agrippa was haranguing 
the people, telling them the stor^' of the rebellion of the mem- 
bers against the bell}'. Said he, — 

" The senators of Rome are this good belly, 
And you the mutinous members : for examine 
Their counsels and their cares ; digest things rightly 
Touching the weal o' the common ; you shall find 
No public benefit which you receive, 
But it proceeds or comes from them to you, 
And no way from yourselves. — What do you think? — 
You, the great toe of this assembly." 

The citizen thus addressed, whose name we may suppose 
was Pickens, answers, — 

" I the great toe ? Why the great toe ? " 

And Menenius replies, — 

" For that, heinrj one o' the lowest, basest, poorest 
Of this most wise rebellion, thou go^st foremost: 
Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, 
Lead' St first to win some vantage. — 
But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs : 
Eome and her rats are at the point of battle ; 
The one side must have bale." 

That is, injury or damage. This is the wa}' to talk to this 
twopenn}^ rebellion. Instead of this, Mr. Buchanan, with 
gown and cap, knitting- work in hand, and spectacles on 
nose, is singing to the country the old nursery-rhyme, — 

" Little Bo-peep has lost his sheep. 

And don't know where to find 'em: 
Let 'em alone, and they'll come home, 
Dragging their tails behind 'em." 

This is a question of pluck and endurance. If the South 
are determined to go out, they will go in spite of us : if 



256 "WABRINGTON:" 

•they are not so determined, tbe}- will stay on our own terms. 
Let our friends in Congress hold still, strengthening the 
administration if it is disposed to do right. We shall in 
this way win 

" The victory of endurance born." 

Our members of Congress who stand firm deserve the 
highest commendation ; and the people should stand b}', and 
encourage them. I will lift m}' hat to ever}' man of them 
who comes home in March, having seen Abraham Lincoln 
inaugurated on the Capitol steps, and the people not betrayed 
by wicked compromises. 

TJan. 24.] 
THE DOUGHFACE ^ PETITION. 

The great Doughface petition is about a hundred 3-ards 
long, is a foot in diameter when rolled up, and contains 
about fourteen thousand names. Here it is : — 

" Wliile sharing, in common with their fellow-citizens, the general 
solicitude at the dangers which are now threatening the peace and 
unity of the country, they desire to give their urgent and emphatic 
expression of the necessity which seems to exist for mutual concilia- 
tion and compromise, and without discussion as to the merits of the 
various questions at issue. 

"Therefore your memorialists humbly pray ("umbly' would be 
better) that such measures may be speedily adopted by Congress for 
the pacific settlement of our present difficulties as will embrace, sub- 
stantially, 

" Such a plan of compromise as may be deemed expedient to 
restore tranquillity and peace to our now distracted country." 

" Mutual concession ! " I think I could devise a plan of 
mutual concession which Avoiild leave us as well off as we 
are now. I should demand from the South, first, the repeal 
of tlie Fugitive-slave Law, inhuman, odioits, and abomina- 
ble as it is ; second, the relinquishment of the dogma that 
slavery is property b}' an}' thing but local law ; third, ample 

1 The Doiir/hfaces were the "soft and yielding mass" of voters who 
were willing to accede to all tho demands of the slaveholders. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 257 

and perpetual guaranties for the perpetuity of government 
against rebellion, ever}- time the elections do not go to suit 
the slaveholders ; fourth, ample and perpetual guaranties for 
freedom of speech and travel to Northern men in the South ; 
fifth, the reconstruction, on a population basis, of the Supreme 
Court ; and so on. Every one of these demands is just. But 
do the men who have gone on with the big petition dream, 
even, of demanding any one of them? No. They do not 
mean to ask any thing. The}- go, not to take, but to give, 
and to give all that the other side ask. You could not 
devise a plan of adjustment which this committee would not 
accept, no matter how degrading to the North. If this is 
an honest movement, wh}' are not the Republicans repre- 
sented in the petition ? Republican paws were found very 
useful in pulling the chestnuts out of the fire, but are not 
clean enough to take hold of the big petition. 

You see they don't go for tranquillity and peace at any 
rate : thej' must have it through a compromise of some 
sort. If Congress can .contrive to preserve peace without 
conceding any thing to the South, that would not do at all. 
We must yield something, or it's no use. We won't have 
our rights if we can get them. We love to be rolled in the 
mud. We prefer to eat dirt. Parodying Macbeth, we have 
in dough 

" Stepped in so far, that, should we wade no more, 
Eeturning were as tedious as go o'er." 

So we prefer to go on. We are up to the armpits in dough : 
let it cover us to the ej-es, and enclose us wholly. Let us be 
" dough souls," as Webster called us when he was Webster. 

Only to think of it ! — the great Boston petition has come 
to nought. The mission of Everett has failed ; Lawrence 
hasn't saved the Union ; Woodbury has made a Judy of him- 
self; and Tobey is not to be considered any great shakes 
hereafter. And why? Simply because their petition didn't 
mean any thing. Just imagine Mr. Everett administering a 
bread-pill to the invalid Union ; and Amos Lawrence carry- 



258 " WABRINGTON: " 

ing a pint of cold water to extinguish the great conflagration, 
which is already licking the pillars of the grand Temple of 
Libert}- ! Speed homo, Mr. Lawrence ; cut, Mr. Tobc}- ; lift 
j-our brogans, Mr. P^verctt ; mizzle, ]Mr. Woodbur}- ; return 
to Boston, and see if you cannot do better next time. 

" Mutual compromise," did you say? Perish the thought ! 
Let us have no mutualism ! Isn't the beaten part}' to have 
every thing, and the victorious party nothing, according to 
the usual custom? Hereafter, when two men ride on one 
horse, the one who rides behind shall alwa3-s ride before. 
Hereafter the defeated party shall have all the fruits of vic- 
tory, and the victors shall be bound hand and foot, and 
exhibited for a show, like Bajazet in his cage. 



[April 18.] 

THE PURPOSE OF THE WAR. 

Ever3'bod3' is gratified, and man}- are astonished, at the 
superabundant loyalty of the people, and their alacrity to 
enter upon the military service. With less than a day's, 
and, in some cases, less than twelve hours' notice, the 
companies hastened to Boston from considerable distances, 
with full ranks. I suppose a good deal of this willingness 
to serve is due to the fact that young men like novelty and 
excitement, and that, at the present time, business is dull, 
and lucrative employment hard to get ; but most of it is un- 
questionably due to a deep feeling of the necessity of action 
and sacrifice for the salvation of the country and its free 
institutions. 

The historian must say that this is a greater cause than 
that of '76. The American Revolution was a natural and 
regular progress and development from monarchical and 
aristocratical to republican and democratic institutions : it 
might have broken out ten years earlier, or ten years later, 
with the same ultimate result. One pretext was about as 
good as another for the outbreak ; and it was accident which 
determined the men through whom, and the places where, it 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 259 

should take place. But this war is to defeat a treasonable 
conspirac}' (just now come to a head), which aims at the 
destruction of republican and democratic ideas, not to re- 
store us to the control of a constitutional monarch}', — that 
we could endure tolerably well, — but to the authority of a 
military, slaveholding, slavery-perpetuating despotism. 

Failing, by the aid of President, Congress, and courts, 
which they have had in almost uninterrupted succession for 
the last twent}' 3'ears, to sway the government for this pur- 
pose ; baffled at last, in 18G0, by the growth of the free 
States, and the increasing intelligence and spirit of the 
masses, native and foreign, — they have at last resolved to 
break up the government, and reconstruct it, if possible, on 
a despotic basis ; or, failing in that, to separate, and main- 
tain a slaveholding confederacy of their own. It is sicken- 
ing to remember the successive steps of this treason, and 
of the imbecility in the late administration, by which it was 
fostered, and made formidable and dangerous, up to the 
point of absolute war. All descriptions of lying, from per- 
jury to the most pett}' impostures and trickeries ; all kinds 
of dishonest}', from open robbery and burglary to pett}' lar- 
ceny and counterfeiting ; all kinds of meanness, from squat- 
ting in congressional chairs which did not belong to them, 
to writing anonymous letters, and slandering defenceless 
women, — have been resorted to by the leaders and follow- 
ers in this most wicked rebellion. 

One good result of this rebellion is to unmask these 
women-whipping "gentlemen," and show them for what 
they are. How can a man claim a character for chivalry and 
honor who lives salely by stealing? Slavery is one long- 
continued theft. An emploj'er in New England who does 
not pav his laborers is a bankrupt or a swindler, or both. 
Yet the whole cotton, rice, sugar, and tobacco crop is raised, 
and not a mill paid for it in wages. Force and fraud are the 
foundation of the sj'stem, are the whole sj'stem, — force to 
legalize the fraud. Not a man of the slaveholders who are 
now engaged in breaking up the government ever ate an 



260 " WARRINGTON: " 

honest meal of victuals, or wore an honest pair of boots, or 
rode a mile on the fruits of honestlj'-paiil labor. Of course, 
there is difference in guilt. All slaveholders have not added 
the wickedness of treason to the meanness of theft : man}^ 
would gladly be rid of slaverj-, and have the privilege of 
being honest, if their government and their social s^-stem 
did not forbid them. But the whole framework of govern- 
ment and society in the slave States is built and cemented 
b}- fraud and injustice, and must, sooner or later, fall. 

We have never held that it is our especial mission, how- 
ever, to put it down, except as it is our duty to discourage all 
sorts of evil, and promote the spread of civilization and free 
institutions. In a legitimate wa}', and doing what we could 
not fail to do, without being recreants' and dastards, we have 
elected a President who is against the spread of barbarism ; 
who prefers that it should be checked, rather than encour- 
aged ; whose influence is to be given in favor of the rights 
of man, and against the pretended rights of the slave-owner ; 
in favor of honest dealing, and against theft, peculation, and 
a wholesale s^'stem of swindling a people out of the wages 
of their work. For this offence we are to have our govern- 
ment broken to pieces ; for this crime we are to be punished 
b}' dismemberment or subjugation. The slaveholders are not 
onl}' the aggressors, but they have made war upon us for the 
most outrageous purpose that the imagination can conceive, 
— to make us as wicked, and as infamous in the world's e3-e 
and in the pages of histor}', as themselves. 

We can afford to lose fortresses and cities, and to suffer 
a lifelong taxation, and groan forever under a national 
debt, if we maintain our manhood and our free institutions. 
Indeed, we deserve to suffer reverses and humiliations for 
our i)ast sins. If we may expiate our national cruelties 
towards the black race by the loss of Fort Sumter, we may 
be grateful that Providence has dealt no worse with us. 
But we must not lose every thing. Especiall}- we of New 
England and IMassachusetts, and the States which sprung 
from New England and Massachusetts, must remember our 
history, and stand by our free constitutions. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 261 

" We are a people yet, 
Though all men else their nobler dreams forget, 
Confused by brainless mobs and lawless powers : 
Thank Him who placed us here, and roughly set 
His Saxon in blown seas and storming showers, 
"We have a voice with which to pay the debt 
Of boundless love and reverence and regret 
To those great men who fought, and kept it ours." 

The poor, despised negro, who cannot even be admitted 
into the militarj' service to fight for himself, finds sevent}'- 
five thousand white men called out really to vindicate his 
rights, and seventy-five thousand more will be called out if 
need be. It matters not that the ostensible and real pur- 
pose is to uphold government ; or that, possibly, the negro 
will find himself no better off at the end of the war than he 
is now : he is at the bottom of it, and for him it is in reality 
waged. 

[April 23.] 
THE SPIRIT OP THE PEOPLE. 

The city never looked so beautiful as it does to-day. 
Ever}' street and nearl}^ every building has its flag. Wash- 
ington, State, and Broad Streets are peculiarly rich in the 
patriotic emblem. lunumei'able little flags arc seen in every 
direction ; and scarcely a horse or a wagon, or an apple- 
stand, or a lobster-barrow, is seen without its signal. And 
this no more than indicates the enthusiasm for the countiy 
and its cause, which is universal. If there are any dissent- 
ers and growlers, the}' have sense enough to keep silent. 
A few of them got caught, not reading propheticall}^ the 
signs of the times,- like Mr. "VV. J. of Medford, who, having 
compelled his workmen to take down a flag which the}' had 
hoisted, was obliged by the people to hoist it again icith his 
oion hands; but such instances are A'ery scarce, and com- 
prise only the most inveterate malignants. There is a spirit 
of toleration among the political friends of the administra- 
tion, which matches well with the patriotic offers of men and 
money from the other side. I dare say there are heart-burn- 



262 "WAREINGTON:" 

ings enough in secret on both sides, but little, if any, outward 
manifestations. Ever}' thing is swamped and submerged in 
the tide of patriotic feeling. The common people — the 
masses, the bone and sinew — are the first and foremost ; 
and, if an}- distinction can be made among classes in a 
country- where all men are workers, the merchants and capi- 
talists deserve as high distinction as anybody else. The 
politicians are probably behind the rest, it being harder for 
them than for others to subordinate their party feelings. 
The newspapers which appear da}' b}' da}' contain the proud- 
est chapters ever written of the history of Massachusetts. 
Now is the time for the historian and the annalist to gather 
his materials for his account of the glorious part the Bay 
State is taking in this second and most important war of 
independence. Every two-line item is precious, and should 
be gathered up and saved, as evidence that the old Puritan 
and Revolutionary blood has not only not died out, but is as 
fresh and vigorous and indomitable as ever. 

It is a privilege to live in such times. The elevation of 
feeling in the people is enough to compensate for all the 
hardships and losses of the war, if it lasts as long as that of 
the first Revolution. What if men do fail ! They won't 
starve (there is no danger of that) ; and by and by good 
times will come again: and, if hopes of leaving a large 
property to children are dashed away, this is no more than 
happens, to a considerable- degree, in ordinary times ; and 
now this loss will be more than compensated by the satis- 
faction of having borne some part in this glorious second 
war for independence. " We live in deeds, not years," says 
Festus. Ralph Farnham's hours on liinikcr Hill were worth 
all the rest of his life, unless he was more fortunate in his 
opportunity to do good than the majority of men. 

I'his is the only chance wc have had to do any thing his- 
torical and telling for the country ; and let us improve it. 
We have all done our duty, as we understand it, to our 
families, our neighbors, our party, civilization, education, 
religion, humanity, the intemperate, the slave, the victim of 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 263 

sin or of society's inequalities or injustice ; and perhaps, 
in tlie serener judgment of ttie Almightj', ttiese services are 
as worthy as vaiy other. But now seems a greater occasion, 
because our very existence as a free people, the fate of civ- 
ilization itself, for a timq at least, hangs upon the issue 
of a campaign, longer or shorter, as it may be. "VVe have 
bragged and blustered, and fired cannons and burned fire- 
works for Bunker Hill, and Saratoga, and the Fourth of 
Jul}'. The question now is, whether these places and days 
shall be wiped out, and we go back, — not to British rule, not 
to colonial and provincial times, but to the rule of tjTants 
and oligarchs, who, instead of ruling us, ought to be subju- 
gated at once and forever. If we succumb, or consent to 
compromise, or yield again to them, we shall deserve the 
contempt of the world, and shall have it ; for we shall only 
postpone the contest, to be settled b}^ our children or grand- 
children. We should not be content even with peace, unless 
it is accompanied hy the establishment of a polic}^, which, to 
saj^ the very least, shall discourage slaverj', and encourage 
emancipation. "We must no longer submit to the equality 
of slaver^' in our national councils. We must cage it, and 
starve it out, if we do not kill it at once. Never let it rule 
us again, or even presume to be on equal terms with liberty. 
We shall have no freedom, no peace, no commerce, no 
national life, which is exempt from panic and peril, so long 
as slavery dominates over us. We have risen against it. 
This is reall}' a rebellion of ours against slavery, rather than 
a rebellion of slaveholders against freedom ; and it is evi- 
dent enough that it is completely in our power, perhaps not 
for extinction in a day or a year, but for speedj' and sure 
extinction. 

If ever there was a holy war, this is the one. Franklin 
is reported to have said, that there never was a good war 
or a bad peace. lie was mistaken. This is emphaticallv a 
good war ; a war for libert}- against slaver}' ; for order 
against anarch}' ; for civilization against barbarism ; for 
national life against atrophy and national extinction. 



2G4 "WARRINGTON:" 

" Oh, a good cause stands firm, and will abide I 
Legions of angels fight upon its side." 

The nation is •whole. We have got to have a war for its 
integrity ; but we shall not have IMexico, street-fights, con- 
version of stocks into cash, and flight of capitalists, or the 
man on horseback, as predicted bj- Caleb Gushing in his 
Bangor letter, and by Shelley before him in his " Masque 
of Anarchy : " — 

" Last came Anarchy : he rode 
On a white horse splashed with blood: 
He was pale even to the lips, 
Like Death in the Apocalj'pse ; 
And he wore a kingly crown ; 
In his hand a sceptre shone ; 
On his brow this mark I saw, — 
* I am God, and King, and Law I' 
With a pace stately and fast 
Over English land he passed, 
Trampling to a mire of blood 
The adoring multitude; 
And a mighty troop around 
With their trampling shook the ground, 
Waving each a bloody sword 
For the service of their Lord." 

No, no, Mr. Caleb Cushing : we are not going to allow the 
"man on horseback" to desolate New England, or any 
other part of the lo3-al States.^ 

^ Everybody remembers the Hon. Caleb Cushing's famous Bangor 
letter, written in January, 1800, in which the writer predicted, that if 
the Republicans sliould elect a speaker of the National House of Repre- 
sentatives, and if Connecticut and New Hampshire should, at the then 
approaching elections, sustain the Republican policy, there would be 
a general smash, — " social convulsions, hostile combats in the town 
streets, jiredatory guerilla bands roving up and down the country, 
shootings and lianginj^s," and, to wind up, " cruel war, — war at home, 
and, in the perspective distance, a man on horseback, with a drawn 
sword iu his hand, some Atlantic C;csar, or Cromwell, or Napoleon," 
&c. We have always thdught, particularly since the present rebellion 
broke out, that Mr. Cushing must have had a more intimate knowledge 
of the purposes of the Southern traitors than he saw fit to divulge. 
But let that pass: his prediction is much above the average of those 
made by the professed wizards, astrologers, and spiritual mediums. — 
Waiirlngtox, in New - York Tribune, 18G1. 



FEN-PORTRAITS. 265 

[June 10.] 
THE NEGRO READY TO FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. 

Men talk as if the four million slaves of the South, con- 
stituting the laboring population, the bone and sinew, the 
working-men, the true wealth of that region, were worse 
than cannibals. Where in histor}^ is there an instance of so 
many people bearing so many protracted years of slavery so 
quietly and patiently? " The most silent, the most eloquent 
of men," saj's Carl3'le, " is the English laborer, falling down 
upon the bosom of his old mother, and djing for want of 
work and bread." But do not the "poor dumb mouths " of 
four million patient bondmen plead as eloquentl}' for immu- 
nity from abuse and scandal, as well as for justice and free- 
dom? Is it not enough that we have, for 3'ears going on to 
centuries, kept those men in chains, making the life of each 
man, woman, and child, one long agonj^ from j'car to year, 
but we must proceed to call them barbarians and savages, 
and compare them with the wild Indian, or the Hottentot in 
his native jungle? For shame! The horrors of a single 
day's assault upon the white Northern-born inhabitants of 
the South exceed those which have ever taken place in the 
country. See the villains taking free colored men from the 
" Star of the West," and selling them into eternal slavery ! 
See them imprisoning scores of Maine lumbermen in Rich- 
mond jails ! See them hanging and mobbing peaceable and 
loj'al people of their own cities and towns because the}^ will 
not be traitors like themselves ! 

The white man says to the colored brother, " Stand aside ; 
keep shady: if you appear in plain sight, j'ou'll frighten 
somebody. Your skin is black ; your nose is flat ; your lips 
are thick, your heels long. We are making excellent use of 
a lot of old fog}' Whigs and old hunker Democrats just now, 
putting down this rebellion hy the monc}- of the former, and 
the stout right arms of the latter. These people never saw 
you ; they don't know you ; they have a prejudice against 
you : if you come out of the fence, you'll spoil every things 



26G " WARRINGTON: " 

Keep quiet, and let the Democrats fight for you, and the Bell- 
Everetts spend mone}- for j-ou, and b}- and hy you'll get all 
j-ou want." Well, there Avas something in this, but not 
much. I don't think the negro need to be discouraged at 
any action the legislature has yet taken. By and by, Avhen 
the fight becomes thick, this nonsense Avill be knocked out 
of the Democrats and Bell-Everetts, and also out of the 
Republicans, who yield to it rather than believe in it. After 
the white man has fought till he has got tired of it, and 
has made a peace of some sort or other, the negro will take 
his turn. The slaveholder will be beaten and disgraced, 
or victorious, and more insolent than ever : I am quite sure 
the first thing is to happen. But, either wa}', then will come 
the black man's opportunit}-. If his tyrant is humbled, he 
will be an easy pre}' ; if triumphant, the hopeless bondman 
will rise in his despair, and rush upon his oppressor. Then, 
also, will come the time for leaders who shall mean some- 
thing. Our generals and colonels evidently don't 3-et know 
what they are fighting for : the}' are drifting along, the prey 
of circumstance. 

After the war is over, unless John Quincy Adams's advice 
is followed by government, and slavery is declared abolished, 
the John Brown men will make their appearance. The}' will 
be readily recruited by energetic leaders, and speedily and 
easily armed. We shall have guerilla leaders and followers 
inspired by the si)irit of Cromwell, mixed, perhaps a little, 
with that of the buccaneer. They will pray, however, 
rather than prey. They Avill fight like the Ironsides at 
Marston Moor. "We never charged, but we routed the 
enemy," said Cromwell, describing this battle: "God made 
them as stubble to our swords. We charged their regiments 
of foot with our horse, and routed all we charged. Give 
glory, all the glory, to God." Or at Dunbar, where, says one 
annalist, " I heard Nol say in the words of the Psalmist, 
' Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered ; ' " and, when 
the chase was suspended for a moment, the enemy sang the 
117th Psalm at the foot of Doon Hill : — 



PEN-PORTRAITS. -267 

"Oh! give ye praise unto the Lord, 
All nati-ons that be ; 
Likewise ye people all, accord 
His name to magnify." 

This is only a new phase of war. Read the story of the 
negroes fleeing from the town to the ships with their bundles 
in hand. They were fleeing from the men who had made 
immemorial war upon tlieir race, and seeking protection in 
the rescuing force. What a tale of lifelong oppression does 
this reveal to us ! No usage, no custom, no tradition, no 
persecution for generations and centuries, no S3-stematic 
imbrutement, no cordon or quarantine to keep out light and 
air and liberty from this dense, thick, black, tangled slave- 
desert, has been able to suppress, or apparently to make 
dim, the divine instinct in the slave's soul, that he has a right 
to be free, and that, as he has supported his white master, he 
can equally well support himself. He has recognized a state 
of war all along : subjugation and coercion have been familiar 
ideas, if not words, to him. How eagerl}- he embraces the 
first opportunit}' to emancipate himself! 



[July 25.] 
BULL RUN. 

This war has been ver}" much simplified by the repulse at 
Manassas. The "Countr}- Parson " has an essay on " Things 
Slowly Learnt." I don't remember just now what these 
particular things are ; but we are not obliged to resort to his 
essay for examples. Let us take the law of gravitation. 
Some men learn it' much sooner than others ; but I don't think 
the aptest scholar among us mastered it under the age of ten. 
My two-year-old takes lessons in it ever}- day, and, though 
he improves very fast, has not got the hang of it completelj'. 
Occasionally j^ou see a man who did not complete his educa- 
tion in this branch until he broke his arm b}- a fall from an 
apple-tree. Others took eas}' lessons in the shape of barked 
shins and " black-and-blue spots." The United States 



268 " WARRINGTON: " 

barked its shins at Fort Sumter, and has now got an ugl}- fall 
at Manassas. Its arm is in a sling, and will be for some 
weeks. But it has at last mastered the law of gravitation. 
This law does not tell us we must never climb apple-trees, or 
proceed faster than a walk, but only that we must make proper 
preparations for our exploits and expeditions, and use proper 
means to carry them out. And the first thing to be done in 
this war was to ascertain tlie character of the contest and of 
our enemy, and our own resources. They used in Concord 
to tell a storj' of " Johnnv Burr," who, having on hand a 
foot-expedition to the town of Ashby (some thirt}' miles 
distant), took a walk round the "five-mile square, just to 
get his legs limbered." This seemed at one time very 
ridiculous to me ; but it was certainly better for Johnn}' Burr 
to give out, if he must give out, at the place where he began 
his journey, — viz., on the village common, — rather than five 
miles distant, on the road to Ashb}'. 

All this is " writ" philosophical (so to speak) and illus- 
trative. Let us now proceed to sc^y in plain terms, that, by 
the Manassas defeat, we have learned that there is only one 
plain and simple issue in this war ; and that is, Shall the 
stockholders rule this country, or shall we rule it? It is not 
even a question whether wc shall rule it jointly' ; whether we 
shall make two, three, or a dozen confederacies, and so tr^- to 
live in peace with each other ; or whether we shall patch up a 
truce on exchange of prisoners and of places, and try to go on 
peaceabl}'. All this nonsense has been cleared away by the 
Manassas fight. We are in for it, as Paul Jones was when 
he fought "The Serapis " with " The Good Man Richard ;" 
and we must say as he did, when asked if he had surrendered, 
— " Surrendered? We have just begun to fight ! " Slavery 
must die in this contest, or freedom and free institutions 
must die. Tlie two elements cannot live together, in union 
or out of union, on the same continent. If there is a peace, 
it is treacherous ; if there is a compromise, it is a trick to 
gain time ; if thei'c is a division of territory, and two or 
more governments, there will be endless civil wars, and 
finally the great battle over again at last. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 269 

Gen. Scott's answer to some one who spoke of defeat is 
splendid, — "Who is defeated? The government is not 
defeated: I am not defeated." True, noble old soldier; 
and 3'ou and the government are not going to be defeated. 
I hope we shall not pa}^ heed to frightened members of 
Congress, or panic-struck volunteers, in the matter. 

The secession organ in New York sa3-s that the exact 
terms which the South would have dictated, if it had been 
fortunate enough to get possession of the capital, would have 
been these ; viz. , that ' ' no man holding the theories of Abe 
Lincoln and his followers shall be permitted to hold office. 
We cannot permit 3'ou and Seward and Chase to seize the 
government created by slaveholders, and to wield it as an 
instrument for degrading j'ourselves and your posterity by 
impartial freedom with Sambo : and therefore, unless you 
solemnly pledge yourselves to stand by the decision of the 
Supreme Court, and, furthermore, incorporate that decision in 
the Federal Constitution, and thus forever prohibit the exist- 
ence of such a party as j'ours, we will turn you out of the 
Union ; drive you into Canada ; at all events, get rid of 3'ou." 
It continues by predicting that the dictation will finally over- 
take us, and that some da}' "the Constitution will say in 
distinct terms that this is a government of white men, and 
no antislavery man sJiall be permitted to hold office under it." 
As Carlyle said, when he read the account of the speaker of 
the Arkansas senate descending from his seat, and stabbing 
a member to the heart with his bowie-knife, "I like this, 
it is so candid!" But the Manassas fight is more candid and 
more impressive, and teaches in cannon-shot precisely the 
same doctrine this secession whelp teaches with his pen. 

[Sept. 5.] 

Fremont's immortal proclamation. 
The President's letter to Gen. Fremont makes much 
comment. Popular opinion, as far as the proclamation is 
concerned, is almost unanimously in favor of Fremont. 



270 " WARRINGTON: " 

Nothing that has occurred since Major Anderson returned 
the fire directed against Fort Sumter, and so broke the dis- 
graceful silence which the country had maintained for more 
than four months while the rebellion was in active progress, 
— nothing since that time had so stirred the pulses of all 
true men, and made all loyal hearts leap with jo}- and gratu- 
lation, as the proclamation of freedom to the slaves of the 
Missouri rebels. 

Fremont is dismissed.^ I do not believe that his dis- 
missal meets with general approbation. I believe that he 
has been pursued b}* the army -officers, by certain members of 
the cabinet, and b}- the border-State men, in a manner wholly 
unjustifiable, while his antislavev}' proclamation excited the 
ire of all proslavery men throughout the country. The 
Democratic part}' were, of course, prepared to l)elicve any 
thing evil of him. These elements were enough to upset 
him. That the abuses and corruptions of his administration 
were greater than those which have characterized other 
departments I do not believe. When the investigating 
committees get through their work, they will make up a 
record of swindling and extravagant expenditures ever}'- 
where which will appall the countr}'. But it is of no use to 
complain. Fremont and his friends must bide their time ; and 
there is no danger of an}* man's getting injustice in the long- 

1 The reasons for Gen. rr<?mont's disobeying the President's orders 
as to the route across the mountains in pursuit of the rebel Gen. Jack- 
son were, "When Gen. Fremont took the responsibility of disobeying 
the President's orders as to the route by which he should oro.ss the 
mountains in pursuit of Jackson, the President was displeased, as was 
natural and proper; but, when Zagonyi explained tlie reasons, he was 
satisfied on the main point. 'But,' said he to Zagonyi, 'Gen. Fremont 
ought to have informed me of his plans, and of the reasons why he 
could not obey my orders.' — 'Mr. President,' said Zagonyi, 'lam 
instructed by Gen. Fremont to say that he could not spare any of his 
officers, nor trust the telegraph; and, furthermore, to say that all the 
intelligcnee of his movements which has been placed in the ciHice of 
the Adjutant-General has reached the enemy soon afterwards.' " 
Gov. Andrew tells this story. He had it from Mrs. Fr(5mont. I was 
going to print it, but thought best not to do so. —Extract from Diary of 
18(35. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 271 

run. The judgment of the people is prett}' nearly infallible, 
after a while. Fremont is the only man who has said the 
words, " free men ; " and for this Fremont has been removed. 
If Fremont has been guilty of mistakes, or even of crimes, 
there are a million of men now living who will forgive him, 
in consideration of his proclamation and his deed of manu- 
mission, — documents which will be as immortal as the 
Declaration of Independence. 

[Nov. 14.] 

LANDING AT BEAUFORT. — PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 

I have discovered a coincidence ; viz., that the landing at 
Beaufort was effected just exactly one 3'ear after South Caro- 
lina broke out in rebellion against the government. Lincoln 
was elected on the 6th of November, 18G0 ; and the very 
next day, the 7th, Palmettodom began to make preparations 
to secede. Now, on the 7th of November, 1861, two rebel 
forts in Port Royal harbor are silenced and captured, a rebel 
army is compelled to take to its heels, a rebel town or city 
is depopulated, and the peculiar institution, in its density 
and invincibility (so considered), is uprooted, turned topsy- 
turvy and inside out, and demands total re-organization 
in order to save Southern society itself from anarchy and 
destruction. Verily, this has been an eventful and glorious 
3'ear ; and I, who have been complaining and scolding at the 
government for inactivity, should feel ashamed of m3self, 
did I not think that complaint and uneasiness and criticism 
on the part of the press and the people had been useful in 
bringing the administration up to its present position. 
Events, however, have done a thousand times more. Mr. 
Cameron saicl, the other night, that he liked the phrase 
"logic of events;" and press and people have hurried 
events. 

Now the people are happy. The war has actually begun. 
Hurrah ! the ranks are closing ! Up to Nov. 7, we have 
been on the defensive. The Army of the Potomac has 



272 " WAHRINGTON: " 

been defending "Washington ; and, though it once moved 
towards Richmond, it might plausibl}" maintain that Rich- 
mond was the place to defend Washington. Rosecrans has 
been defending the State of "West "Virginia, or Kanaw^ha, a 
lo3"al branch of the Union. Maryland, Kentuck}-, and Mis- 
souri have had to be protected against "Virginia, Tennessee, 
Arkansas, and Texas ; and if the fleet had assailed Fort 
Sumter, or tried to retake Pensacola nav3'-3*ard, its move- 
ments would have been in conformity with the determination 
announced in President Lincoln's inaugural, — that the gov- 
ernment would repossess itself of its stolen forts. But 
Beaufort has no stolen forts to repossess. Beaufort is new 
ground. It is struck at because it is the most favorable 
spot for offensive Southern operations. It is the heart of 
Slavedom which is now assailed. Honor to the men who 
planned and executed the movement ! "We begin the second 
3-ear gloriousl}'. The tired feeling which has oppressed the 
people for the long months since Bull Run is lifted off. 
Ball's Bluff and Big Bethel and Belmont are atoned for and 
forgotten, so far as they can be, in the general joy. The 
bulletins and newspapers are cheerful ; and the eyes which 
read them sparkle with gratulation : every letter is pictorial 
and ornamental ; and the newsboys are full of music as they 
cry out, " Victory, victory ! " 

[Nov. 30.] 
MASON AND SLIDELL AT FORT WARREN. 

If anybody is to suffer hardship and indignity, it should be 
such men as Slidell and Mason, two of the greatest scoundrels 
in all Rebeldom. Mason was here some years ago, and, under 
the patronage of Boston hunkers, gave us an exhibition of 
plantation manners on Bunker Hill. People looked upon his 
burly and laz}' person with awe. Here was a man who had 
power over other men; who had snubbed his equals, kicked 
his inferiors, and flogged his slaves, — a great man. He came 
to remind us of our constitutional obligations ; to tell us 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 273 

that we must let him snub, kick, and flog ad libitum., he and 
his fellows of the F. F. V., he and his children and grand- 
children, and so on to the remotest generations. He came 
to tell us to mind our own business, and to be thankful that 
his parental rule was not also extended over us ; that the 
beneficent whip was not brandished on the New-England 
hillsides (as it ought to be) over both blacks and whites. He 
didn't say all this ; but he meant it. It spoke in his eye and 
gesture, and in everj' movement of his burly, laz}' person. 
People looked on with admiration. Boston conservatism 
said, " It is good to be here. It reminds us of feudalism : 
it is a touch of mediaevalism : it is a rebuke to the rampant 
spirit of democracy and equal rights. All hail the great 
Mason ! ' ' 

Slidell is even a shabbier rogue than Mason. He is more 
of the Flo3'd style. He plaj's a greater round of characters, 
and is a thief and an election-swindler, as well as a ty- 
rant and aristocrat (^cide the Houmas land-grant and the 
Plaquemine frauds). But there is no reason to suppose that 
Mason feels above Slidell. He ma}' not be, in practice, so 
notorious a thief and swindler ; but he has the elements in 
him. It is a matter of temperament and habit merely ; for 
you. may be sure that the man who lives voluntarih' and 
persistentl}', and without compunctions, on the unpaid earn- 
ings of other men, has nothing in him which prevents him 
from being a vulgar thief, should his necessities require him 
to be. Mason, if not too laz}', may 3'et be compelled to 
accept a situation as Peter Funk of a New-York auction- 
shop in order to keep himself from starvation. Elizur 
Wright suggests that he deserves a severer punishment than 
Slidell, even hanging, on his grandfather's account. Con- 
siderably shocked, I asked him what he meant by that ; and 
he said, he meant that he deserved to be hanged for disgra- 
cing the name of George Mason, the Virginia abolitionist of 
the Revolutionary era. A good point. 



27-4 "WARRINGTON:" 

[May 20, 1802.] 
COLORED RECRUITS AND CONDITIONAL PATRIOTISM. 

Gov. Andrew's letter to the Secretary of War, giving the 
government a hint that volunteering would be more speedy 
and enthusiastic here in Massachusetts if the enemy's 
" magazine," slavery, was not considered too sacred a thing 
to be fired into, has also been the subject of a number X)f 
sensation articles. The governor is accused of being a 
"conditional" patriot. So it is " conditional patriotism " 
to sa}- that the young men of Berkshire and Worcester and 
Pl3'mouth would rather fight for freedom than for slavery, is 
it? It is " conditional patriotism " to intimate to the Presi- 
dent, that, if he will let Gen. Hunter's proclamation of 
freedom stand, the people will rallv to the rescue of the 
country with more alacrity than they will if he constantly 
thwarts and baflles every etfort on the part of our generals 
to strike down the arch-foe of the countrj-'s peace, is it? It 
is "conditional patriotism" to hint that the fathers and 
mothers and brothers and sisters of our brave Massachusetts 
volunteers are quite as willing to see able-bodied, acclimated 
black men enlisted to do the drudgery of the camp, and the 
warlike work of the field, as to have their own sons and 
brothers subjected to the unnecessary toil, and for the sake 
of the stupidest of abstractions, or the vulgarest and wicked- 
est of prejudices, made invalids or corpses in the divine 
cause of human slavery, is it? It is " conditional patriot- 
ism " to object to sending down Massachusetts white regi- 
ments to be boiled, baked, and roasted under the sun of the 
Yorktown Peninsula in guarding the premises of rebel 
colonels, or on the coast of Florida in watching lest the fire 
should catch the premises of a rebel guerilla chief absent 
on duty, is it? " Conditional patriotism " to think that our 
soldiers might be better employed in putting down slaver}' 
than in bolstering it up, striking home at the heart of the 
monster evil, rather tlian shielding and protecting it, is it? 
"Conditional patriotism" to think that the Hampden and 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 275 

Franklin and Middlesex bo3'S are as good, and as worthy of 
protection against negro arms, as the barbarian herds of 
Florida and Georgia, is it? For ever}^ man we send to the 
South puts himself in peril from the bullets of negro soldier}''. 
Negroes are good enough to kill the men Col. Horace C. Lee 
has marched down to North Carolina ; but the men Col. Lee 
is opposing and tr3'ing to subdue are — Heaven save the 
mark ! — of too fine a qualit}- to be the mark for black 
musketry. Nothing but a Massachusetts bullet, sped by a 
white man, will do for them. 

There is a very general feeling here, that if the govern- 
ment would give up its theory of the possibilit}' of saving 
slavery and the Union together, and accept the services of a 
million able-bodied loyalists now waiting for an invitation 
into our ranks, it would have no need of any more Northern 
recruits. The Yankee is patriotic and enterprising ; but he 
is not particularl}^ fond of doing the hard work of the world 
when others are willing to do it under his guidance. And, 
moreover, politically the}- are not so much' in love with 
slavery as to think Mr. Sewai'd's theory of the war, as 
developed in his letters to our foreign ministers, is the best 
one possible to be devised. The}' do not mean wantonly to 
violate constitutional guaranties, if there are any such ; but 
inasmuch as slavery has outlawed itself, and rendered itself 
liable to destruction at but little if any expense of constitu- 
tional scruple, they do not see the sense of conducting the 
war for the sole purpose of preserving it. 

There is something inexpressibly ludicrous in the dilemmas 
in which our government involves itself in its determination 
to save slavery from destruction or suicide. A plain man 
would suppose, that if an arch traitor or enemy of the country 
should insist upon killing himself, we should not interfere, 
except, perhaps, for the purpose of executing judgment upon 
him in a public and exemplary way. Slavery, the arch 
traitor and rebel, the only traitor and rebel, the universal 
traitor and rebel, stands upon a precipice, just ready to throw 
itself down ; and we are preparing to prevent the fatal plunge, 



276 "WABRINGTON:" 

or, in case it is made, to break the fall, and nnrse the patient 
into life and vigor again. " The condition of slavery in the 
several States" (said Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton in April, 
18G1) " will remain just the same, whether the rebellion 
succeed or fall. The rights of the States, and the condi- 
tion of ever}- human being in them, will remain subject to 
exactl}' the same laws, and forms of administration, whether 
the revolution shall succeed, or whether it shall fail." That 
is to say, " I will save slaver}', unless events and the people 
are stronger than I am." 

LJuly 10.] 

GENERAL McCLELLAN. 

I don't think this is a good time for recrimination and 
abuse, or for careless words which seem like recrimination 
and abuse. I am reminded that I have seemed to rejoice in 
Gen. McClellan's mishap,^ or what I considered his mishap. 
Nothing could be farther from my thought. I ask. When 
have the antis'lavery men failed to do justice to ability and 
success, without asking questions as to the politics of the 
successful man? Did we ever ask what were Burnside's, or 
Mitchell's, or Pope's, or Lyon's, or Foote's, or Dupont's, or 
Davis's, or Farragut's politics? Did our knowledge of Ilal- 
leck's hunkerism send us on his track, so long as he showed 
energy, and achieved success? — except, indeed, when he illus- 
trated his principles by his worse than foolish orders against 
negroes, Avhich I imagine were one cause of his failure to 
catch Beauregard, or to find out where he was gone. Have 
we been factious or unreasonable over Fremont's disgrace, 
brought upon him, not because he was actually defeated, but 
because he failed to defeat and capture his flying foe ? The 
fact is, we, the antislavery men, have been so devoted to our 
purpose of putting through this war, that we have fanatically 
worshipped success and ever}^ man Avho achieved it. Here 
is the secret of our opposition to McClcUan : — 

I Ilis repulse on the Peninsula, in one of his "changes of base." 
Gen. McCcUan's numerous defeats and repulses were called "changes 
of base." 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 277 

** Wliat boots it thy virtue, 
What profits thy parts, 
While one tiling thou lackest, — 
The art of all arts?"i 

Gen. McClellan has been in command of the Arm}- of the 
Potomac nearly a j^ear. He has met the enemy at Williams- 
burg, West Point, Fair Oaks, and in half a dozen places from 
Mechanicsville to Turkey Landing. He has repulsed them 
always, but has obtained not a single victor}' over them. 
This is the naked truth, which no man can deny. It ma}- be 
pleasant to patch up fig-leaves to cover it ; but it is not worth 
while : it profits neither the general nor the country. I hope 
he will win victories : indeed he must, or we are lost. But, if 
Congress Avere to vote him a sword, it would be puzzled to 
get beyond Rich Mountain in its inscriptions. It could hardly 
say, as Napoleon said to Moreau on presenting him with a 
pair of pistols, " I designed to have them engraved with the 
names of all your victories ; but there was not room enough 
to contain them." McClellan's military career reminds me 
of the story of the dipping to which Charles Lamb w-as sub- 
jected. Being a stutterer, Lamb got soused three times 
before he could cry out articulately, "I was only to be dipped 
once." This is the second time for the Potomac general : 
the next and last must come before long. 

[Aug. 10.] 

IN WAR TIME. 

The contest has developed itself far enough to satisfy 
everybody, that, no. matter how long it continues, it must not 

1 Gov. Andrew said yesterday (July 12), at dinner, that Count 
Gurowski had written to hiiu that the French princes left the army 
simply hecause of McClellan's total inefficiency. 

Two or three days ago, I saw Col. E. W. Hincks of the Nineteenth at 
Dr. ^Yillard's house in Oak Street. He told uie in so nzr.ny words, that 
Heintzclman, Sumner, Hooker, Sedgwick, and all the lighting generals, 
had a total lack of contideuce in ISIcClellan's military ability. He also 
said that TMcClellan had not once been under fire since he had been on 
the Peninsula. — From Diary of 18G2. 



278 ''WARRINGTON: " 

stop till one side or the other is completel}' subjugated. A 
peace on anj' other basis would be nothing more than a pause 
between two battles, — simpl}' a cessation of the cannonade. 
Better universal bankruptcy and repudiation, a tabula rasa, 
a new date, — the ^^ear 1 of the country, instead of the year 
87, — a new Declaration of Independence and Constitution, 
and forgetfulness of the old ones and their authors, new flags, 
new seals, ncAV emblems, new capitals, now forms of govern- 
ment, new oaths and formulas, and an abolishment of all old 
laws and traditions, rather than peace on any other terms 
than subjugation of the rebels to our complete will, or subju- 
gation of ourselves to their wills. Separation and recognition 
would have been hazardous, as well as disgraceful, even if 
we had consented to it before the hostilities commenced. But 
then it was possible : now it is a clean impossibility. 

A conviction of this fact it is which makes some of us so 
impatient with Mr. Lincoln's talk about " saving the Union." 
If he means the government, the people, the nation, very 
well : but he means the union of States, — South Carolina 
equal with Massachusetts, and Mississippi with Vermont, 
and Virginia with New York ; rebels to be forgiven, and to 
have equal rights with loyal men. Thank Heaven ! the rebel 
leaders are too proud to come back to our hated companion- 
ship ; and I hope and believe we are too manly to let them 
enter our counsels as equals. This sort of a " Union " is a 
dream, a delusion ; worse than that, a madness. And so all 
question of what we shall do, or refrain from doing, — how 
many or how few slaves we shall make free, or keep in 
slavery, — in order to bring about this Union, seems more 
childishness. The thing being impossible, questions of method 
arc out of place. The President might as well issue proposals 
for the best and cheapest plan of building a railway to Jupiter, 
— to the infernal regions, rather, to make the comparison 
more apt. To shriek out, " Save the old Union, the Union as 
it was ! " is as wicked as it would be for a half-converted sin- 
ner, instead of praying to be newlj' born into Christian life 
and holiness, to cry out, "Give me back my old soul, my 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 279 

soul as it was ! ' ' Are we not going to get something for all 
this blood and mone}' we are spending? 

Is Yankee toil and shrewdness, to sa}' nothing of Saxon 
love of liberty, brought out of the German woods to Eng- 
land, and thence sent forward to these shores in the veins of 
Puritan and Revolutionar}' men, so deteriorated, that we are 
willing to decimate our population, and load every corpo- 
ration, nation, state, cit}', county, and town with incalculable 
debt, in fighting a war with a beggarl}' bankrupt who has 
nothing to lose, and finallj- leave off, not onlj^ without reliev- 
ing ourselves of a nuisance, but even giving him clean clothes, 
a respectable dwelling-house, and prestige and credit on 
which he can live and flourish for years, to our worse dis- 
credit and annoyance than ever? It is not possible. We 
must tr}' conclusions with him. If slaver}^ has trained up a 
race of men with superior and invincible genius for govern- 
ment, wh}', let us acknowledge the fact, and quieth' submit 
to the more lordly race. But it is not so. We have failed 
because we have not yat emancipated numbers from slavery. 
" The crack of the whip is over us still." Slavery inspires 
one arm}', and beuumbs the other. If the French monarchy, 
with its centuries of abuses, could not be abolished without 
a convulsion which destroyed a king, a queen, a thi'one, a 
bastille, and the lives of five millions of people, do we expect 
a more hideous wrong, a more foul imposture, — American 
slavery, with a rebellion founded on it, — to be put down 
without the cashiering of an incompetent officer, the fracture 
of a parchment, the rending of a judicial decision, or even a 
shock to an old politician's prejudices? 



280 "WARRINGTON:' 



*\ 



CHAPTER IX. 

JUBILEE DAYS. 

[Sept. 25, 18G2.] 

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. — ANTIETAM. 

It is hardl}' necessary to sa}- that the President's procla- 
mation is received in Massacliusetts with general congratnla- 
tion and jo}'. Sixteen days ago, a convention of nearl}' a 
thousand delegates, representing the party which includes 
two-thirds of the people in its ranks, voted unanimously' that 
slavery ought to be "exterminated." The constituents of 
these men, 3-ou ma}- be sure, are in no degree behind them 
in opinion. IMan}- of our people were getting a little impa- 
tient with the President ; but most of them, inspired by Mr. 
Sumner's hopeful confidence in his integrity', and openness 
to the reception of ideas and facts, were disposed cheerfully 
to wait till he should have fully made up his mind that the 
measure was a wise and indispensable one. 

AVhether the battle of Antietam (Phoebus, what a name !) 
was a victory or not, we have had a victory in the Presi- 
dent's edict of emancipation, about which there can be no 
dispute. Brutum fulmen they call it. "Well, even if it is, 
it follows the law of the war. Take that battle of "Wednes- 
day, — cannonading from five o'clock in the morning until 
seven o'clock at night, incessant discharges of musketry, 
assault and repulse, tons of powder and ball and shell 
blown away, and thousands of men killed and wcnindcd ; 
and no result except next day u truce, a burial of the dead. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 281 

and a retreat of the rebels into Virginia. Take tlie whole 
campaign of the last three weeks, — an advance into Marj-- 
land, havoc and the dogs of war let loose in peaceful and 
prosperous neighborhoods, and an advance back again. 
Na}-, go farther ; go back to the beginning of the great 
Peninsular campaign, of which this is the end. We are just 
where we were early in the spring. 

Brutum fulmen indeed ! At least, a war of words, edicts, 
and proclamations cost nothing in life and blood. It has 
that advantage, at any rate, over this aimless warfare we 
have been carrying on in the field, this " vain masquerade 
of battle," as Mr. Sumner called it in his speech of last 
year. I would not disparage nor depreciate the necessity 
of force. No set of men has clamored so loudl}^ for great 
armies as the abolitionists ; but the}' have asked that the 
armies shall be re-enforced and accompanied by ideas which 
cost nothing, only that conscience and common sense shall 
have free play and scope in the American heart. " God is 
alwa^-s on the side of the strong battalions ' ' is Napoleonism 
and atheism. " The race is not to the swift, nor the battle 
to the strong," is Scripture and truth. " Ever}' great and 
commanding moment in the annals of the world," says 
Emerson, "is the triumph of some enthusiasm." And he 
cites the victories of the Arabs after Mahomet: "The 
naked Derar horsed on an idea was found an overmatch for 
a troop of Roman cavalry. The}- conquered Asia, and 
Africa, and Spain, on barley. The caliph Omar's walking- 
stick struck more terror into those who saw it than anothei 
man's sword." The rebels are beneatli us in numbers and in 
military preparations ; there can scarce!}' be a doubt of that • 
but they fight for something. The surest way to overthrow 
and destroy them would be by some crusading cry like 
" Emancipation! " but we are so debauched by worship of 
the filthy idol, slavery, that we cannot have that. Only as a 
military and civil necessity can we have emancipation. The 
sympathies of God, and all good men and nations, must be 
enlisted on our side by this proclamation ; and, even although 



282 " WARRING TON : ' ' 

we shall not be able to attain the divine enthusiasm which 
would sweep every thing before it, we must now coniiuer. 
We have made the cause of libert}' and civilization clearly 
our own. ]S"o more slave-catching. No more repulses of 
lo3'al, faithful black men. No more slaughter of escaping 
Unionists, however dark-colored, in the streets of New 
Orleans. No more submission to such awful and ineffaceable 
ignominy as that we have suffered at Harper's FeiTy, where 
the white Unionists were paroled, and the l)lack ones — inno- 
cent men, non-combatants, wards and children of the United 
States — were hurried off into slavery ; or as that we suffered 
on the Potomac, where the black men who drove our ambu- 
lances were seized by their rebel masters. 

The i)rayer of twenty millions is answered. How many 
slaves will be made free by the immortal document to which 
Mr. Lincoln has placed his name, is uncertain ; nor is it of 
the first importance. When we build a gunboat, we don't 
know whether she will ever reach an enemy's fort ; Avhen we 
make a cannon, we have no security that it will not be cap- 
tured b}' the enemy before it has slain a rebel ; when we 
send forward a regiment, we know not but it may be led to 
slaughter at Ball's Bluff, or some other bluff, as the Eigh- 
teenth was the other day, before it has fulfilled its mission of 
war against treason. They say the rebels will laugh at the 
proclamation. I think the}' will. They laugh at every thing 
we do. They have learned so thoroughly to despise our 
statesmanship and generalship, that the}' will in all probabil- 
ity keep on deriding us. Well thej' may. This very habit 
of derision may be their ruin. Of course, thev will not 
return to their allegiance before Jan. 1 ; and it is too much 
to lioi)o that we shall conquer, and re-establish our suprem- 
acy over any great portion of the territory now dominated 
b}' the Confedorac}'. We may roach IJichmond ; we may 
redeem Kentucky and Tennessee : but it is hardly probable, 
with the utmost efforts we can put forth. If we do not, on 
the 1st of January the edict of emancipation must be 
enforced. Three months' time will be sufficient to let the 



PEX-PORTRAITS. 283 

negroes know what " Old Abe " said and meant on the 22d 
instant ; and then they will either help themselves to free- 
dom, to their rights under the law of the land, or the 
rebel armies will melt away in the attempt to hold them 
at home. We shall have emancipation or subjugation, and 
probably both. No matter for results. It is sufficient to 
know that nothing but good can follow from an act of justice 
like this. 

The battle of Antietam resembles the fight between 
Heenan and Sayers more than anj^ other I can think of. 
It was a series of knock-downs and bloody noses, with Lee 
and McClellan and Fitz-John Porter, and fifteen thousand 
reserves, looking on as umpires, until night threw up the 
sponge, and declared it a drawn battle. It was sheer pound- 
ing on both sides, with not a spark of generalship on either. 

The losses in the Massachusetts regiments in the battle 
are terrible. The Thirty-fifth Regiment, Col. Wilde, only a 
month or five weeks from home, marched a hundred miles 
just before the action, and then took a position which two 
other regiments refused. The list of killed and wounded, 
especially' in the Roxbury, Haverhill, and Newbur3'port com- 
panies, is painfully long. How splendidl}' Massachusetts 
has shone out during this whole war ! How magnificently her 
regiments have been made up, officered, and equipped ! and 
how gloriously the}' have behaved ! 



[Sept. to Nov. 7.] 
THE people's PARTT.^ JOEL PARKER AND OTHERS. 

There is an element of the comic in this thing in its con- 
nection with Massachusetts politics. Stimulated b}' ancient 
hatred and prejudice against Charles Sumner, and by the 
vain hope of obtaining some little Republican help in their 

1 Tliis i>arty was composed of " hunker" proslavery men who were 
opposed to the election of Charles Sumner. "The 'hunker' is a man 
who hunks, or foists himself into a good position; probably a word of 
Dutch origin." — C. C. Hazewell. 



284 ''WARRINGTON:" 

opposition to him, half a dozen hunkers got together the 
other da}', and said, "Let us prepare and load our biggest 
petard, and give the senator a hoist." The work of loading 
the gun was intrusted to Judge Joel Parker, who was known 
to have a sufficiency of wadding, if his projectiles were not 
of the most formidable kind. So the judge sat himself 
down ; and said he to himself and his associates, perhaps 
to his mathematical friend Benjamin Pierce, "Look here. 
Given the problem to upset Charles Sumner, how shall we 
do it?" And the brethren scratched their heads, and were 
at a loss. At last some one who had read the newspapers 
bethought him that he had seen it stated in " The Post" that 
the Republican Convention had refused to indorse the Presi- 
dent purposel}' using the Avord " government " instead. 
" Ah, I have it ! " said he : " we must make support of the 
President our platform, and denounce Mr. Sumner and his 
friends as the President's enemies." No sooner said than 
done. Thus was the platform agreed on. If anybody sug- 
gested that Mr. Sumner was on intimate terms witli the 
President, had been in the Senate the foremost supporter of 
his measures and polic}', and had written urgent letters to 
persuade his radical friends to hold on to the last in their 
faith in " Old Abe," doubtless it was replied, that his radical 
supporters would eventually pusli him into opposition. If 
anybody intimated that the President might possibl}' become 
himself the chief of emancipationists, doubtless the idea was 
scouted by these political bats. The programme being agreed 
on, the writing of the address was an easy matter ; and yet I 
would not swear to that. 

To one used to writing political addresses and resolutions 
it wouhl have been eas}'. There is no great brilliancy of 
imagination required to sa^', '••The country is in danger;" 
and no great historical knowledge to bring a man to the con- 
clusion that "a civil war has desolated the land for more 
than sixteen months." "The world has never before seen" 
is an expression which has been applied to armies and fleets 
and battles so often during this war, that it would readily 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 2^6 

occur, even to a dull man, in writing about the magnitude of 
the rebellion. "Thundering at the gates of the capital" is 
one of the most serviceable hack expressions ; but I aban- 
doned it long ago to the most unskilful of newspaper men, 
as trite and unworthy. The address was an eas}' matter 
apparentl}' : j-ou had only to use a conglomeration of words 
with especial care to conceal 30ur meaning ; to express opj)o- 
sition to Sumner, and yQt say nothing about him ; and so 
frame a document which should rope in the unsuspecting, and 
humbug the innocent, while to those in the secret it should be 
luminous with meaning. But, alas ! to Judge Joel Parker, a 
controvers}', or something like one, a hit, a dig, an innuendo, 
is as necessary as a breakfast to a hard-working laborer. 
He doubtless looked over his job in its rough draught, and 
said, " It will do : and 3'et it will not do ; for I have not hit 
anyl)ody a dig. Go to : I will find a place, and I will insert 
something, which, while it shall do no harm, shall jet satisfy 
m}' combative sense." And doubtless he interlined the words, 
" We loant no imiJotent 2')TOclamations noiu," and said to him- 
self, "Now I have placed my imprimatur on it, and the world 
will know it is Joel Parker's." And it went forth. "Go, 
little book," said some poet while ushering his volume into 
the world. "Go, little address," said the judge, — "go, 
and astonish the universe. Go and gather together the 
opponents of Mr. Sumner. Go and organize a hunker oppo- 
sition to him. Go and make my name immortal as a politi- 
cian, as it now is as a laAvyer, a professor, a reviewer, and a 
reviser." 

And while the judge was putting the finishing touch to it, 
perhaps even interlining the words "impotent proclama- 
tion," lo ! Abraham Lincoln was putting words together into 
an " impotent proclamation " just such as Judge Parker hkd 
solemnl}^ declared that he did not "want:" and, the verj'- 
daj^ after the manifesto against "impotent proclamations" 
appeared, out came the identical " impotent" one which the 
judge had warned the people against ; and the judge, hav- 



286 "WARRINGTON : " 

ing read the morning paper of the 22cl, and seen that the 
period of gestation and delivery was safely passed, pro- 
ceeded to headquarters, and issued a resolution congratula- 
tory over that fact, and straightway went about his usual 
avocations, leaving to Mr. Swan the duty of engineering the 
nascent and crescent organization which was to be no organ- 
ization, and parly which was to be no party, and to raise 
mone}' for the printing of no-party documents, and for the 
support of no-party newspapers like "The Boston Courier," 
and for the support of no-part}* candidates for Congress and 
the Senate and House, and general!}' for the advancement of 
the interests of pure and unadulterated patriotism and no- 
partyism, based on an unqualilled support of the President 
against all radical attempts to make him issue " impotent 
proclamations." And the next morning the judge opened 
his morning paper, and looked to see further evidences of the 
progress of the movement ; and, lo ! he beheld in startling big 
letters (impotent) "Proclamation of Emancipation by Pres. 
Lincoln." I draw the veil over the scene, but can onlj'hope 
the judge had finished his coflfee and mullins before he came 
to that dreadful heading. 

Mr. Parker is understood to have retired to his professorial 
chair. Tlie Law School was divided against itself. Prof. 
Parsons, in half a column of stirring words, did more to elect 
Sumner and Andrew, than Prof. Parker, b}' his hundred 
columns of sophistry, to defeat them. The people of New 
Jersey believe in Joel Parker,' for I see the}' have chosen 
him governor ; and Joel evidently believes in himself: but 
the people of Massachusetts don't believe in him, or the 
' ' others ' ' who followed him. Let him keep in the Law School, 
to which he has returned. " Take him up tenderly, lift him 
with care, fashioned so slenderly, young and so fair." Let 
me inake a funeral procession for him as he proceeds toward 
the classic shades : — 

1 Another Joel Parker. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 287 



"Others" 


"Others" 


" Others" 


"Others" 


Joel Parkek 


"Others" 


"Others" 


"Others" 
"Others." 
"Oth- 
ers" 
"0 
t 
h 
e 
r 


"Others" 



But this is poor business, I am afraid, trying to create a 
laugh under the ribs of death. 



POLITICA.L HISTORY IN 18f)l AND 1862. 

The Republican partj- is the only party in this State, or in 
any of the States, which has ever acted on the sublime no- 
party principles which are proclaimed in such platitudinous 
language — as if they were new and profound truths — by 
Judge Parker. If there is a State in the Union where the 
Democratic party, since November, 1860, has failed to main- 
tain its organization in all its strictness, I should like to 
know which it is. At the very moment Parker was issuing 
his address, there was in print in "The Boston Post " a 
partisan call for a Democratic State Convention; and the 
nearness of time of holding these two proslavery conven- 
tions makes it certain that a " truck and dicker," like that 
which used to characterize coalition and Know-Nothing par- 
ties, must have been entered into by the high contracting 
parties. Last year the Republicans nominated Judge Abbott, 
a Democrat, for attorney-general, and Edward Dickinson, a 
Bell-Everett, for lieuteiiant-governor ; thus giving to one- 
third of the voters one-third of the ticket. They afso passed 
a very moderate set of resolutions. Yet the organs of the 
two parties which an attempt was thus made to conciliate 
denounced the Republicans more bitterly than ever. Messrs. 



288 " WAUniXG TON: " 

Abbott and Dickinson declined ; and the Republicans, finding 
that all further efforts at conciliation were thrown awa}', 
nominated men of their own part3' to fill the vacancies, and 
went on to elect their own ticket. No-part3ism prevailed in 
some of the senatorial and representative districts ; and some 
of the Democrats acted in good f:iitli, and behaved them- 
selves like gentlemen and patriots as the}' were ; but, as a 
general thing, the}' stood on one side, taking all the}' could 
get, and giving notliing in return. This is a brief yet true 
history of our politics since the war broke out, up to the 
meeting of the Republiciiu Convention on the lOtli of Septem- 
ber, 18G2. 

[Jan. 1, 18G3.] 
<- JUBILEE DAT. 

The war has thus far been conducted on the principles and 
with the instruments furnished by the Democratic party, the 
allies of Jeflferson Davis in many a well-fought political 
battle-field. A large majorit}' of this part}', voters and 
leaders, is to-day in actual rebellion against the government. 
AVon't there be a black record against this party for the 
future political annalist? 

Take a " Tribune Almanac," or any other political man- 
ual, and look at a list of the governing men — the senators, 
representatives, and governors — of two years ago, and you 
will find that a large majority, nearly all, of those Avhich were 
marked down as Democrats, are now the sworn enemies of 
the United States. To their allies of the Northern States 
we have intrusted the "big job" of putting them down. 
Congress, at the outset of the struggle, adopted the old 
Cincinnati platform, or its equivalent, the Crittenden reso- 
lutions ; and from that day to this, with occasional, and lat- 
terly with frequent oscillations and divergences, the war has 
been carried on according to the notions of Jeffs political 
friends, and strictly on Democratic principles. Fremont and 
Hunter tried to switch the government off the proslavcry 
track, but did not succ-eed. Unmercifid disaster compelled 



PEN-POItTRAITS. 289 

the removal of McClellan and Pope, and some other Demo- 
cratic generals ; but Halleck, and Fitz-John Porter, and 
Franklin, and a number of others, stick closer than brothers 
to us 3'et. What a record of incompetency and half-hearted- 
ness is furnished by the Washington courts of inquiry ! 
Every officer whose testimon}' I have seen enlarges elo- 
quently on the difficulties in his path and in the path of his 
brother Fitz or Mac. The}* had dark nights invariably', as 
well as bad roads, when required to move on the enemj'. 
The inconstant moon refused to shine, and the cpnstant mud 
refused to dry up. 

Is this day to signalize the complete and final eman- 
cipation of "Honest Abe" from Democratic principles 
and men? If it is, we are safe enough; and January, 
1864, will see a recovered nationalit}', a "noble and puis- 
sant nation." Is it safe to say more? "Interpret for me' 
the libretto," said Mr. Choate to his daughter at the opera, 
"lest I dilate with the wrong emotion." Is it safe to 
shout over this day of jubilee, or even to go to the concert 
at Music Hall this afternoon, and hear the beautiful music 
which Zerrahn and Dresel have promised? I think it is. I 
don't see how this Declaration of Independence can fail 
to bring forth good fruit. That old Declaration of Jul^- 4, 
1776, remained a ridiculous hrutmn fulmen for seven years. 
No doubt many a mad wag among the Tories of that day 
had his jeer at it, comparing it to the Pope's bull against the 
comet. The humorous papers and the humorous men of 
New York and Boston no doubt had their laughs over it. 
" Free and independent States, ai-e you? Are _you hot get- 
ting out of j-our jurisdiction? Hasn't England something 
to sa}' about that? Are 3'ou sure you have material force 
enough to maintain jour Declaration? Poh, poh ! Brutum 
fulmen^ hrutum fulmen! Pope's bull, Pope's bull! Ha, ha, 
ha! " said the mad wags. But Yorktown and 1783 came at 
last ; and it turned out that the Declaration was good from 
the first day. 

Jeff Davis knows better than the funny newspapers. He 



290 "WARniXGTOy: " 

doesn't sneer at the Proclamation : he knows that words 
are things. Wh}-, what is the Rebel Confederacy but a 
parchment? Repeal the acts of secession, and it is gone in 
a moment. Subdue the Confederacy by force of arms, and 
j-ou onl}' abolish rebel parchment, and substitute the old 
parchment now in the archives at "Washington. The Decla- 
ration of Independence is a parchment just as worthless as 
" Old Abe's " Proclamation unless it is made vital b}' a pop- 
ular purpose and determination ; and the Proclamation may 
be made as vital and animating as the Declaration, if the 
President and the people say the word. "The flighty purpose 
never is o'ertook unless the deed go with it," says Shak- 
speare. Let " Old Abe " remember that. JeflT Davis remem- 
bers it in connection with his parchment constitution and all 
his other parchments. There was a " battle of the books " 
'once, according to Swift : now let us see which will get the 
best of the battle of the parchments. 

The Jubilee Concert on the 1st was a grand success. I 
see "The Courier" has been pitching into it. What will 
become of the poor devils who S3'mpathize with that news- 
paper? Literature, religion, and science, and sculpture, and 
painting, and music, are now all against tliem. Cannot 
somebody idealize the slave-driver in marble, and set it up 
in one of their club-rooms for their special gratification, or 
make a musical composition which shall alarm their ears 
with the shrieks of poor women for stolen babies? Let 
something be done at once. 



[April 10.] 
SWORD-PRESENTATIOX TO GEN. McCLELLAN. 

What does Mac want of another sword ? Has he hacked 
his old one on some rock b}' the roadside to make it appear 
as if it had been used? The sword bears an inscription: 
"Pro rege snepe, pro patria semper." George Lunt, who 
made the presentation-speech, undertook to translate this 
" for the benefit of the country members." Waving his hand 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 291 

solemal}", and swelling his voice to a parenthetic chord, said 
he, " For the administration when it behaves itself ; for the 
country alwaj-s." The general, who is supposed to under- 
stand Latin, and who is not such a fool as to be ignorant of 
the animus of the whole proceeding, on his own part as well 
as on the part of the flunkies and Tories, — the general, I 
understand, rather resented this imputation upon his clas- 
sical knowledge and his common sense, and intimated in his 
reply, that he knew, as well as Lunt, what the words meant in 
this case. I have these particulars from 3'our correspondent 
Mr. Frye, who was present, but was too greatly overcome 
with his emotions to send you a fnll account to-day. How 
¥v\Q happened to get into the parlor is more than I can 
tell. But he informs me that two gentlemen from Hampden 
County were with him ; and, as nearly as I can ascertain, 
these three are the only pei'sons, known or suspected of being 
in an}' wa}- connected with " The Republican," who have 
been allowed to see the general. Fr3e informs me that one 
of his companions casuallj^ remarked to one of the chief 
flunkies, that he "had had a very good opportunit}^ to see 
Gen. McClellan ; " and flunky replied, "Yes; but there 
ain't many abolitionists that have had a chance." Right, 
O flunky ! right ! And I rejoice to say that there ain't many 
"abolitionists" who have wanted a chance. But enough 
of this thing, which will soon be over. Sheetings and 
shirtings will soon again absorb the attention and energies 
of Beacon and Mount -Vernon Streets. Only twenty-four 
hours more remain for bab3--kissing and pitcher-presenting, 
unless the visit is protracted to allow North and Richmond 
Streets to send up their babies (with their mugs) likewise. 
And why not? North and Richmond Streets have more 
votes, and, for that matter, more brains, than Beacon and 
Mount -Vernon Streets. Ah, well ! good-by, general. Luck- 
ily, you don't know enough to appreciate and laugh at the 
sublime foil}' of the rich and ignorant classes of the Tri- 
mountain Cit}'. 



292 ''WARRINGTON :'• 

[May 21.] 
COLORED TROOPS. — HOW A NEGRO REGIMENT LOOKS. 

The scene at Readville camp last Monday was an exhila- 
rating one for those Avho believe this rebellion can be put 
down by the exercise of proper methods, and who are im- 
patient to see such methods resorted to as soon and as fast 
as possible. Here was a regiment of a thousand men, every 
one of them with an Enfield musket (or Springfield, no 
matter which), and apparently with rather an uncommon 
amount of muscle and will to devote to the using of it. 
They marched well ; the}' wheeled well ; the}- stood well ; 
the}^ handled their guns well ; and there was about their 
whole array an air of completeness and order and morale 
such as I liave not seen surpassed in any white regiment. I 
believe I am not biassed by negrophilism, or coerced by the 
dark shadow of that bad time which the copperhead thinks 
is coming, when white men shall have no rights which the 
black man is bound to respect ; but, as I am unmililary, I 
would not give an opinion of this regiment, if I did not find 
it confirmed by everybody who has seen it. There was a 
good sprinkling of abolitionists among the bystanders ; but 
among those who looked on with approbation, if not admira- 
tion, there must have been man}', who, within the last two 
years, have declared that the}' would not fight for or with 
the negro, and would not have the negro fight for them, and 
did not believe he could fight, or would ; and that, if the 
rebellion couldn't be put down by white soldiers, it ought 
not to be put down at all. Monday they were round grunt- 
ing out, " Who says these niggers won't fight? " leaving one 
to suppose that they were original friends of the policy of 
encouraging and employing them. I suppose we ought to 
have charity for such people, — people who have " conquered 
their prejudices." But the trouble is, they had no business 
to entertain such prejudices. Nobody did entertain them 
who was capable intellectually of making up a judgment of 
his own. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 293 

The presentation proceedings at Readville were somewhat 
tedious, there .being too many flags by one. The Putnam 
flag, as it may be called, with its illuminated cross and " In 
hoc signo vinces," was very beautiful, and ought to be very 
precious. The Governor said that he was identified with the 
Fift3'-fourth, and his administration would stand or fall with 
its success or failure. He has taken great pains with its 
organization; and the "Brahmin caste," which Dr. Holmes 
tells us about in " Elsie Venner," is supposed to be more 
largel}' represented in its organization than even in the other 
fifty-three, though it is not lacking anywhere. I suspect it 
is no better blood or fighting material than that which exists 
in the farmers', carpenters', and shoemakers' sons of Mas- 
sachusetts. Education, however, goes a good ways ; and 
though Harvard College breeds a fearful number of snobs, 
3'et a knowledge of science and history does inevitablj^, 
except in the hereditar}" fool, lift a man above prejudices of 
color and race, and makes him more and more a genuine 
democrat. Your true literar}^ man, till he grows seed}', is 
likely to be democratic in his tastes and feelings. Col. 
Shaw of the Fifty-fourth is a grandson of Robert G. Shaw, 
son of Francis G. Shaw of Staten Island, and brother-in-law 
of George "William Curtis. He is slight, but compact in 
figure, with light hair and mustache, and without a beard. 
He looks and speaks like a good soldier. The lieutenant- 
colonel and major are Hallowells of Philadelphia, strong anti- 
slaver}' men. And, indeed, the GoA'ernor would not be justi- 
fied in appointing to command in this regiment men who have 
not a firm and implicit faith in the negro's common human 
nature, and a determination to see that he has a fair chance. 

The death of Lieut. -Col. Rodman of New Bedford, at Port 
Hudson, was a painful event to many who knew him as a 
member of the legislature of 1862. He was a fine, stalwart 
figure of a man, occupied a respectable position as a legislat- 
or, and was generally popular. I believe he was a graduate 
of Harvard College. We evidently have not 5'et got full 
accounts of the slaughter of our troops at Port Hudson. 



294 "WARRINGTON:" 

One account of the killed and wounded in New-England 
regiments, which professed to be complete, had the names of 
onl}' four killed in the Fort^'-ninth ; but we know, from the 
list printed in "The Republican," that there were seven- 
teen. "The New-York World " has a curious story about 
a Federal officer, who said the loss was three hundred killed 
and fifteen hundred wounded. " But how about tlie colored 
regiments? they lost five or six hundred." — "Oh, d — n 
the niggers ! we don't count them any thing." Government 
don't count them any thing. They were killed without quar- 
ter, and even crucified in plain sight of our troops, accord- 
ing to "The Boston Journal's" account; and not a rebel 
has been made to suffer for it. At Millikcn's Bend, as we 
read, the colored men fought well ; but their white officers 
skulked. Who can blame them for skulking? The}' knew 
of the slaughter at Port Hudson, and of the fate which 
awaited them under similar circumstances ; they knew, too, 
that their murder would be unavenged. Is it not monstrous 
for this government to send such men as Col. Shaw ami 
Col. Ilallowell and their brave soldiers into positions where 
certain death awaits them, if captured? 



[July 9.] 

BA.TTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 

I propose to go off in a burst of poetical quotation ; and 
hpre you have it : — 

" Oh ! who that shared them ever shall forget 

The emotions of the spirit-rousing time, 

When, breathless in the mart, the couriers met, 

Early and late, at evening and at prime; 

When the loud cannon and the merry chime 

Hailed news on news, as field on field was won ; 

"NVlieu Hope, long doubtful, soared at length sublime, 

And our glad eyes, awake as day begun, 
Watched Joy's broad banner rise to meet the rising Gun? 

Ohl these were hours when thrilling joy repaid 
A long, long course of darkness, doubts, and fears : 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 295 

The heartsick f alntness of the hope delayed ; 
The waste, the woe, the bloodshed, and the tears 
That tracked with terror two long-rolling years, — 
All was forgot in that blithe jubilee. 
Her downcast eye even pale Affliction rears, 
To sigh a thankful prayer, amid the glee 
That hailed the despot's fall, and peace and liberty." 

This is the only thing I can call to mind worthy of the 
occasion. Prose is not worthy of it, unless something like 
De Quincey's piece, entitled "Going down with Victory," 
which is too long to quote, but which is grander than most 
poetr}-. Those English dragoons at the battle of Talavera 
who "rode their horses into the mists of death, and laid 
down their lives for thee, O mother England ! as willingly, 
poured out their noble blood as cheerfull}', as ever, after 
a long da3''s sport, when infants, they had rested their 
wearied heads upon their mothers' lyiees, or had sunk to 
sleep in her arms," — those dragoons were not more worthj'' 
of immortalit}' than some of the Massachusetts regiments 
which fought at Gett3-sburg. Take the Nineteenth, or the 
Twentieth, which lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, a 
little more than one-half its number. Take the Second, 
which was in Gen. Meade's old division, and has been pro- 
nounced by him the finest regiment in the whole army : its 
loss is like that of the Twentieth, and perhaps larger in 
proportion to its numbers. The country ow^es an apology to 
the Potomac Arm}' ; for one half of the people said it would 
do no effective service unless its old Copperhead chieftain ^ 
was restored, and large numbers of the other half believed 
or feared the libel was a fact. Meade has shown them the 
enemj-'s backs ;• and they must be so enamoured of the sight, 
that they will not sigh for an}^ of their old commanders, 
under whose lead they were so often compelled to " turn 
tail," to use the President's graceful language. AVhat mat- 
ters it if the language isn't graceful? 

Mr. Lincoln might well feel jubilant enough to dispense 

1 McClellan. 



296 "WARRINGTON:" 

with elegances ; and if the English reviewers, in their 
anger over this news, laugh at the President's speech, be 
ma}' reply (he replies to every thing nowadays) in the lan- 
guage of Elijah Pogram to Martin Chuzzlcwit, "We are a 
spry people, sir, and have no time to acquire forms." 
Didn't they "turn tail"? Then why not sa}' so? It is 
pleasant to see that the President remembers what the rebels 
waged this war for, — to overthrow the Declaration of 
Independence. It is this attempt to overthrow, nullify, 
destro}', the great declaration of human equality, which has 
been baffled at Gett^-sburg and Vicksburg ; and the Presi- 
dent remembers with gratitude our escape from the great 
re-action. Bull}' for him ! The generality glitters yet, and 
is living as well as glittering. American democracy, born 
and cradled in Boston, has not spread all over the Central 
and "Western States to be strangled at this late hour by 
the spawn of tyranny hatched in the Carolinas. Whatever 
now comes of this war, that experiment has been tried, and 
failed. The slaveholding power, aided as it has been by 
party-spirit in the free States, has proved itself to be infe- 
rior to the free power. Its courage is matched, and its 
resources are overpowered. They had the hours and days 
and months ; but the years are against them. They had the 
battles, but we the campaigns. Something else must be 
tried. I believe the big battles of this war are nearly over ; 
for, after Gettysburg and Vicksburg, it will be true of the 
rebel leaders as it was of their progenitors in Milton's 

epic, — 

" Such another field 
They dreaded worse than hell, so much the fear 
Of thunder and the swonl of Michael 
Wrought still within them." 

[Julyr.0.] 
THE FIFTY-FOURTH AT FORT WAGNER. 

The news from Charleston has a thrilling interest for 
many here in Massachusetts who have been watching the 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 297 

career of the first of the Massachusetts black regiments, 
and of their brave colonel. There is not a shadow of doubt, 
I understand, of the death of Col. Shaw. It seems but a 
day or two since his slight and plucky figure was seen in our 
streets at the head of his men. He was cvidenti}", from his 
looks, a man of character; and, indeed, it took a man of 
character at that time to be a suitable commander of a black 
regiment. The Fifty-fourth have followed up the victory 
which their compeers at Port Hudson won. Men might 
possibl}' cavil at Montgomery's raids ; but fame won as 
theirs has been, on the perilous edge of battle, is not to be 
disputed about. Col. Higginson of the First South Carolina, 
who is at home, suffering from a slight wound, and looking 
rather thin and worn, says that there is no controversy on the 
coast now about the colored soldier's position, and apparently 
no feeling against him on the part of any white regiment or 
white soldier. He has fought his way into recognition. 
There was never any excuse for tlie scepticism as to the 
negro's capacity for fighting. The slaveholder never showed 
it, and never had it. 

Years ago, Henry A. Wise said in a letter to South-side 
Adams, ^ " With white officers, I would fight a regiment of 
them against any foreign troops which could land on our 
shores. They are faithful, and they are brave, and more 
disinterested than the white man. They are joyous in tem- 
perament, and patient, as their nerves are coarse and 
strong." And he followed up this with the following elabo- 
rate eulogy on the race as a whole : ' ' The descendants of 
Africa now here in bondage in the United States are, en 
masse, as a whole Avealth of people, in bodily comfort, 
morality, enlightenment, Christianity, and actual personal 
freedom, worth more than their mother-country entire, not 
excepting the Europeans there combined with the natives." 
What Africa is worth per foot or acre, it would be difficult to 
saj' ; but Wise's estimate of the value of the negro race is a 

1 llev. Neheiuiah Adams. 



298 "WAJiJtlNGTOy:" 

high one. If he had said worth more than the whole Cop- 
perhead party, he would have greatly' under-estimated their 
worth. Read this extract from Wise, a proslavery Demo- 
crat, in connection witLi the speech of ]\Iontgomory Blair at 
Concord, N.H., and sa}- if "Wise is not the more decent and 
liberal man of the two. The idea of expatriating men worth 
more than the whole continent of Africa, population included, 
is worthy only of a lunatic. 

The theory- of a natural antagonism and insuperable preju- 
dice on the part of the white man against the black is a pure 
fiction. Ignorant men are always full of prejudices and 
antagonisms ; and color has nothing to do with it. Men 
who are themselves habituall}- kicked and snubbed like to 
have the right and the opportunity to kick and snub some- 
body below them. In the South, an intelligent negro looks 
with mental and moral disgust upon the half-witted " crack- 
er" who revenges himself by taking advantage of the first 
chance he gets to buy his colored superior. Such events 
as Port Hudson and Morris Island have lately witnessed 
have abolished a great deal of artificial prejudice between the 
two classes of soldiers. White men and black men, wounded 
in the late fearful assault on Fort AVagner, were seen helping 
each other away from the field, and attending upon each 
other in the hospital afterwards. 



[Dec. 10.] 

JOHN M. FORBES AND THE COMMITTEE ON THE ENLISTMENT 
OF COLORED TROOPS. 

It is curious to see a meeting of the Committee on the 
Enlistment of Colored Troops. John M. Forbes is its chair- 
man, — a man of headlong and driving energv, long time an 
abolitionist, and, more than any other man, the confidential 
adviser and helper of Gov. Andrew. lie attends to ever3' 
thing, — writes letters, raises money (liberally contributing 
himself) , sends messages to Washington to direct and or- 
ganize congressional opinion, makes or persuades editors to 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 299 

write leading articles to enforce bis views, hunts up mem- 
bers of Congress in vacation-time, dines them at the club, 
and sends them back full of practical suggestions, which 
re-appear in bills and resolves the month after. Amos A. 
Lawrence is alwa}' s there, — not originally an abolitionist, but 
a conservative, — fearful that something will be done con- 
trary to law and constitution ; trying to train the cannon-ball 
of war so that it will " come round the cornfield and the hill 
of vines, honoring the holy bounds of property" (see Cole- 
ridge's " Wallenstein," and pardon me if I have perverted 
the exquisite illustration), but as zealous and liberal as 
any other man in the great work of raising men, without 
distinction of color, to fight the foes of American nationalit}'. 
There is F. W. Bird, coming in from his paper-mill at Wal- 
pole ; and Judge Russell, ubiquitous, who, they saj^, holds 
courts, and gives able charges : but I can hardly believe it ; 
for he does every thing else, and knows every thing going on 
in the cit}'. Co-operating with these are Edward Atkinson 
(one of the ablest men in the State, and particularlj* wise 
on the whole subject of cotton and emancipation and free 
labor), S. G. "Ward the banker, Alpheus Hardy, Dr. Beck 
of Cambridge, Henry B. Rogers, George William Bond, 
George L. Stearns, and so on. 



[Dec. 31.] 

TUIRD YEAR OF THE REBELLION. 

"Well, so ends the third 3'ear of the Rebellion, if we reckon, 
without precise reference to days, from the beginning. This 
puts one in mind of a mot of one of our Supreme-Court 
judges. On the da}- when we heard of the fall of Sumter 
before Gillmore's batteries, some one told Judge H. of it, 
and added the remark, that " this is the beginning of the 
end." — "I think," said the judge, "it is the end of the 
beginning." The actual beginning, I suppose, was the se- 
cession of South Carolina ; perhaps the resignation of the 
first United-States officer who threw up his office in Charles- 



300 " WARRINGTON: " 

ton ; and this, I believe, was the day after the telegraph 
announced Lincoln's election. 

If South Carolina gets into Congress again, she must be 
treated as a free State, and compelled, by the main strength 
of the country, to obey its laws as other States are com- 
pelled to obey its laws. But, as a measure of practical 
safety, neither South Carolina nor any other rebel State 
ought to be allowed a representative in either house of 
Congress until the practical extinguishment of slavery has 
followed its legal and ollicial death. Theorizing aside, this 
is the only path to safety ; for slaveholders are such a per- 
fidious race by nature and habit, that they cannot be trusted. 
We must raze the institution of slaverj' to its foundations. 
As long as the fire is smouldering and smoking, the neigh- 
boring buildings are in danger; and, as long as the chimneys 
are left standing, our children cannot play in the neighbor- 
hood. The nuisance is not wholly abated nntil the rubbish 
is removed, and a new structure erected ; for even an unoc- 
cupied lot in an eligible place is an offence to our utilitarian 
ideas, if to no others. 

It Avill be demonstrated, before this national struggle is 
over, that New England is the home of order and lata, as 
well as of liberty. Hers is the brain of the nation ; and the 
nation cannot do without it. The thieving digits of Missis- 
sippi and the hand of South Carolina, useful only to grasp 
and Avicld tlie slave-whip, can be spared, at least until they 
learn more useful and honest vocations. Palmer makes patent 
legs, and, for aught I know, can contrive a patent digester 
and bellj' for the country, to supply the absence of Ohio and 
Indiana ; but New-England intellect cannot be spared. 

Far distant be the day when Massachusetts shall be found 
to have lost her voice on such an occasion as this ; when the 
gazers, as they mournfully turn away their eyes from her, 
shall say, — 

" The watchman's trumpet-voice is still, 
The warder silent on the hill." 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 301 

[Xov. 10.] 
PRES. LINCOLN RE-ELECTED. 

Now that Pres. Lincoln's re-election has finally' squelched 
out the Democratic part}", there is great reason to hope that 
a very large number of the men who have voted with it will 
cease to wage a factious opposition to the war and the prog- 
ress of events, and join with the Republicans in a patriotic 
effort to restore the Union, without, at the same time, attempt- 
ing to save slavery from destruction. Many of the leaders 
have loved and defended slaver}' merely because the alliance 
with the slaveholders has been profitable to them ; but it 
does seem as if the most obstinate doughface must at last 
see that there is nothing more to be made by cringing and 
subservienc}^, and that it is more profitable, as well as more 
comfortable, to stand upright. The}' may expose the holes in 
their clotlies, worn by the abrasion of their knees with the 
muddy pavement ; but they can get a new suit on tick, if 
necessary, at the first Republican tailors, and their appear- 
ance on the platform will be welcomed with "tremendous 
cheers." "Winthrop runs home on Tuesday night, scrapes 
himself with a potsherd for twenty-four hours to get otf all 
traces of contact with the party which went into the fight 
declaring the war " a failure," and then goes to the Sailors' 
Fair and shouts over the successes of Farragut, Worden, and 
Dupont ; and the good-natured people shout with and for him. 
I wonder at the Board of Trade, which refused to have 
Halfmast Fay for one of its committee of arrangements to 
receive Capt. Winslow. Some mistake there, which will be 
rectified before long. Let him express a willingness to be 
loyal, and there will be plenty of Republicans who will joy- 
fully send him a letter, asking him to give his views on the 
political questions of the day. No trouble about the leaders. 
As for the people, emancipated from their leaders, they will 
do well enough. Luckily the people, the great mass of the 
people, are sound. 

The Baltimore platform calls for the extirpation of slavery, 



302 "WA RRIXG T02f: " 

and the President's nUimatinn is its abandonment. Common 
sense will have to fight a good while, and with a good deal of 
vigor, against gradualism, Louisiana theories, compensation, 
and so on ; but it is read}* for all this. It is on the flood- 
tide which leads to fortune. Every conservative theory is 
proved false and falser daj' by da}'. The more immediate 
abolition is, the more successful. The more the negroes are 
let alone, the more they prove worthy of liberty. As soon 
as people find out that they are men, and not minors and 
wards subject to guardianship, the better for the countrj'. 
The best part of the old conservative "Whig section is with 
the Republican party now. Indeed, the party is getting 
eminently "respectable," without losing, I think, its vigor 
and progressiveness. " The Advertiser " classifies the ex- 
governors, giving us Lincoln, Everett, Boutwell, Clifford, 
Washburn, Banks, and Gardner. "Instinct is a great 
matter:" so we find Brewster and Baker and Tenny and 
Devereux, and Jonathan Pierce, and, indeed, about all the 
Know-Nothings who distinguished themselves, following 
Gardner into the ranks of the Copperhead Democracy.^ 
Brewster spoke in Dorchester the other night ; and the 
papers reported that his remarks were interrupted by the 
music of a brass band. This must be a mistake. No brass 
band ever 3'et organized could drown Brewster's voice. 
Armstrong might try his six-hundrod-pound gun ; but I 
would find men who would bet on Brewster even against 
that. I am told that his Dorchester speech was heard by 
the farmers, sitting at their doorsteps, as far off as Lancaster 
in "Worcester County, and Sandwich on the Cape. 

[Nov. 1.] 
THE LAST OF GEN. GEORGE B. McCLELLAN. 

So the little 'un is disposed of at last. lie has resigned, 
and the people are resigned. Neither on the Chicago plat- 
form, nor on his own, will the}' have an}' thing to do with 

1 The name of a political party hostile to the governmeut. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. ^03 

him. He was in bad company, — to wit, with Vallandigham ; 
and Vallandigliam was also in bad compan}', — to wit, with 
him. " Little Mac " — what a humbug he was ! and so ap- 
parentl}' unconscious of it : — 

" Great, nor knew how great lie was," 

as Coleridge sa3-s of William Tell. How queer, that this 
ridiculous militaiy and political eunuch should impose .upon 
so many people for so many months ! The men who had 
him in charge did not believe in him. Se3-raour knew he was 
a humbug ; so did Belmont and Fernando Wood ; probably 
Lunt and Hillard and Winthrop knew it also : but they 
supposed the people did not know it. They reasoned some- 
thing in this way : " The people have turned us out of office, 
or kept us out ; ergo the people are fools ; ergo, again, it 
is perfectly safe to conclude that they Avill not find McClellan 
out ; ergo the third, we shall humbug them into electing 
him." A slight mistake. The people clung to McClellan 
because the administration clung to him ; and the administra- 
tion, not having faith in the people's instincts and intelli- 
gence, did not dare to tell the truth about him, and send him 
packing, even after his incompetenc}' had been discovered. 
Even so late as September, still lacking faith in the people, 
it sent old Blair to New York to bu}' him off. What if the 
silly creature had been suddenly inspired as idiots some- 
times are, and had jumped at old Blair's oflTer? Fearful 
thought ! Now, let us hope, we are well rid of him. What 
Avill he do? He can " orate ; " but who wants to hear him? 
lie has been in the railroad business : perhaps the care of 
some small depot on an unfrequented branch might not over- 
task his powers. He can write beautifully^ : would he do for 
a reporter on a weekly newspaper? Alas! I fear nothing 
suited to the grandeur of his aspirations can be found for 
him here. Who knows but that, in the world j-onder, hesita- 
tion will be a virtue, yawning a grace, and what we poor 
mortals deem stupidity the highest work of genius ? 



304 "WARRINGTON:" 



CHAPTER X. 

RESULTS OF PEES. LINCOLN'S DEATH. 

[Extract from Diary of 18G5.] 
ASSASSINATION OF PRES. LINCOLN. 

Apkil 2. — Fall of Riclimond. 

April 9. — Surrender of Lee's army. 

April 14. — Assassination of Pres. Lincoln, and attempt 
to assassinate Secretary Seward. 

Events enough for one fortnight. There has been but 
little business, legislative or other, since the 1st inst. ; but 
3'esterday was the day of days. Probably never in the 
history of the country was there such a sensation throughout 
all classes of the community. All men and women were 
aghast with horror, and almost speechless. Men who always 
gabble rushed up to the Trcmont Temple before noon, and 
made speeches. As if there should be a public meeting half 
an hour after an earthquake to celebrate such an event as 
that ! The streets were crowded all da}- ; and in Washington 
Street, in the neighborhood of the "Journal," ''Herald," 
and "Transcript" offices, it was almost impossible to make 
one's way along. There was no speech but "horrible!" 
"dreadful!" "awful!" "cruel!" with occasional expres- 
sions of a desire for more strong measures against the rebels. 

In the afternoon, we had our usual dinner at Young's. 
There were present the Governor,^ Mr. F. "W. Bird, Dr. S. G. 

1 John A. Andrew, 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 305 

Howe, Dr. Estes Howe, Elizur Wright, C. W. Slack, 
Charles Field, Mr. Mack of Belmont, Tom Drew just from 
Savannah, Mr. Haj-es of " The Savannah Republican," 
Darrali, J. M. S. Williams, Oakes Ames, M.C., E. L. 
Pierce, Major Burt, James M. Stone, Major George L. 
Stearns, W. L. G. Greene, — a prett}' good representation of 
the radical Republicans. A good deal of talk about Andrew 
Johnson, and a general disposition to think well and hope 
much of him. The strong tendency of events at Richmond, 
since its occupation, towards reconstruction on simply a 
Union basis, without an}^ regard whatever to security against 
the future supremacy of proslavery influences throughout 
the whole South, has disposed many to think that the country 
may be better ofl^" under Johnson than under Lincoln. It 
is known that Johnson is a terrible hater of the rebel leaders, 
and wants them hung ; has always been against Lincoln's 
amnesty schemes. 

But, in spite of all this, the death of Lincoln looks to me 
like an unmixed evil. In the first place, he had the confi- 
dence of the country as no man since Washington has had 
it. With him in the chair, the Democratic party was pre- 
paring finall}^ to give up the ghost. Johnson has no such 
mastery ; and I fear an immediate revival of that party, 
ready to take advantage of all Republican divisions. 
Second, I don't think we want a reign of blood and terror. 
Some few of the rebel leaders ought to be tried and executed 
with due formalities of law ; but there should be no persecu- 
tion, or spirit of retaliation ; but we should have, instead, a 
settled and firm polic}' of reconstruction on the basis of 
justice to the negro: 

Lincoln had no adequate idea of what ought to be done ; 
but I fear Johnson has still less. Lincoln was, at least, 
master of himself, and master of the situation : Johnson 
may be the tool of anybody and everybody. Lincoln we 
have summered and wintered for four jears, and knew 
exactly what he was : Johnson is wholly untried ; and his 
behavior on and before the 4th of March was not to his 
credit. 



306 ''WARRINGTON:" 

I don't believe, nowever, that there can be any serious 
and i)crmanent drawback to the progress of right opinions. 
If Lincoln had been killed in 18G2, anarch)* would or might 
have followed, at least for a time. Now every State is in 
lo3'al hands, the rebel armies are scattered, and peace must 
speedily ensue. "We will hope for the best. 

Booth the assassin is a ranting and bad actor. I expect 
it will be found that the conspiracy-, if a conspiracy at all, 
is confined to only a few persons, — desperate, rattle-brained, 
half-craz}- copperheads and secessionists. But, in the popu- 
lar estimation, Jeff Davis, ^ Lee, & Co., will be held responsi- 
ble ; and it is true enough, that the murder is the legitimate 
result of the teachings of the Richmond newspapers. After 
all, it is not very strange that four years of such war as this 
country has witnessed should have bred one or two assassins. 
It would have been an exception to civil wars, if it had not. 

The spirit of revenge is rising in the community : indeed, 
the feeling occasione<l by the murder of the President has 
continually deepened up to to-day. I think it far more 
intense than on Saturda)-. As the newspapers are pored 
over for each important or trivial detail, the sensation in 
ever}' one's heart increases. The speeches, some of which 
are very able and remarkable, tend to heighten the feeling 
ver}- much. Gov. Andrew's message on Monda}' was 
admirable. Charles G. Loring's, at Faneuil Hall, was very 
remarkable in man}' of its features, and is worth preserving 
for its thoughtful contemplation of the great issues now 
before the country', as the Governor's is for its solemn, 
funereal eloquence, and nice analj'sis of Lincoln's character. 
Butler, D. S. Dickinson, and others in New York, have fitly 
spoken. 

Johnson's speeches to the Illinois delegation and others 
tend to satisfy those who hope for revenge. He means to 
hang traitors, and doubtless will do so. But no word yet of 

1 Mr. Sumner told " Warrington " tliat ^Ir. Seward told him that 
the government had positive evidence of the complicity of Jeff Davis 
In the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 307 

justice, or of the true basis of reconstruction and settlement. 
It is needful that more or less of the traitors should suffer 
on the gallows ; but it is indispensable that there should be 
at once a beginning of a social reconstruction of the South 
on the basis of the rights of man, on the Declaration of 
Independence that "all men ai-e created equal." I do not 
ask that Andrew Johnson should hastily announce this pur- 
pose : it is sufficient, if he entertains it, if he will turn his 
face and his thoughts in the right direction. 

Yesterday I sawR. M. Field, manager of the Boston 
Museum. Booth the murderer plaj^ed there five weeks not 
man}' months ago. Field sa^-s he was "rather a rowdy," 
though I did not understand that he was conspicuous for 
rowdj'ism. He had a passion for eclat and notoriet}^ ; and 
Field said it made no great difference to him what he did, so 
he obtained these brilliant scenic effects. A great crime 
would be as welcome to him as any other method of getting 
fame. He has succeeded this time ; for the shot he fired 
has been "heard round the world," or will be ; and its con- 
sequences no man can conjecture. It may topple down 
European thrones, and change the apparent destinies of 
nations. It must make a great change in this countr}', and, 
I still fear, a disastrous one. With four 3'ears of prudent 
leadership under a man whose popularity was unbounded, 
and who could have been, if it were necessary, re-elected in 
1868, the countr}^ might have been consolidated. Western 
jealousy of the East, as well as Southern hatred of the 
North, would have been softened, and things brought round 
again to their old relations. I doubt Johnson's power to 
effect this. To be sure, the signs are favorable now : the 
people are apparentl}' sensible and self-controlled, and are 
giving that confidence and support to the new President 
which are his due ; but there is a mental reservation to all 
this. They do not implicitly trust. They ask one another, 
" What do you think? " The}- are not sure of anj' thing. 

However, I return to ni}' old formula : The people are to 
be trusted ; and they will find a way to bring order out of 
chaos. 



308 "WARRINGTON: " 

[Aug. IG, 186G.] ' 

THE ARM-IX-AR5I CONVKKTION. THE PHILADELPHIA POW- 
WOW. 

They call the place of meeting a wigwam : so I suppose 
this name is allowable. It must have been a funny sight 
to see the Massachusetts and South-Carolina delegations 
marching in arm-in-arm. (Were the}- handcuffed together?) 
But the curious thing about it is, that the South-Carolina 
men are, popularly, as weak as our own. Gov. Orr does 
not represent South Carolina. Wade Hampton, at twenty- 
four hours' notice, almost beat him for the ciiief magistracy ; 
and nobody supposes that Orr will have any popularity or 
power after the State gets fully reconstructed. "Who ever 
heard of Gen. McGowan of South Carolina, who marched 
with "Gen." Swift of Massachusetts? I'll venture to say 
his political influence will prove to be as near nothing as 
Swift's. To go further, take Gen. Dix, a thorough old 
granny, superannuated and effete, about as much so as Tom 
Ewing, who represents the smartest State in the Union, — 
Ohio. The fact that the}- had to take Doolittle for president 
speaks volumes for the weakness of the convention. It was 
a wise choice ; for Doolittle, though a contemptible syco- 
phant, is personall}' respectable, has a loyal record through 
the war, and is a man of fair abilities ; but everybody recog- 
nizes him as a tool of the Executive, as much so as Randall, 
or even Simon Hanscom. Maine sends Weston (lobby agent), 
and Crosby, an old Whig candidate for governor, supposed 
to have been dead ten j-cars ago. New Hampshire sends 
her old regular hard-shell Copperheads, and does wisely in 
that ; for the}- represent somebody. Dixon of Connecticut 
has to go, of course. Browning, an old Whig senator, and 
now a claim-agent and pardon-broker, — stop ! he has lately 
been put into the cabinet, I believe, — represents the Illinois 
branch of the new part}-. Ex-senator Rice is dug up in 
Minnesota ; and the sot McDougal stands or reels for Cali- 
fornia. If you go South, where the part}' is to get its votes, 
if anywhere, you find matters about the same. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 309 

Where was Rousseau, the favorite son of Kentucky? 
Was he squelched, like Vallandigham ? Garrett Davis, of 
all men in the State, takes the lead. William A. Graham, 
who ran for Vice-President with Scott fourteen j'ears ago 
("Tar and Feathers " Webster called the ticket, placing the 
Vice-President first), represents North Carolina. He has 
not had a particle of influence there for more than ten 3-ears. 
Ben Perry divides with Orr the leadership of South Carolina. 
And so on. Val. is probably, on the whole, the truest repre- 
sentative of the principles of the party in the whole country ; 
better even than Mayor Monroe of New Orleans, or Johnson 
himself. Monroe allows his principles to carry him too far ; 
that is to say, for the present. The time has not yet quite 
arrived for wholesale massacre of Union men in the South. 
Monroe is premature. Johnson, on the other hand, was 
loj-al during the war, and, of course, cannot fully represeiit a 
party whose principal support must come from rebels lately 
in arms against the country. Vallandigham was not in arms 
against the government, simply because he lived in Ohio, 
and had not courage to leave it. He was a traitor, without 
having committed the overt act. To insist that such a man 
should decline to be a delegate was not only a gross wrong 
to him, but a stupid blunder. 

If Thurlow Weed got up that melodramatic spectacle of 
"Gen." Swift and Gen. McGowan, and Gen. Couch and 
Gov. Orr, marching along, he is duller than that ' ' fat weed 
that rots on Lethe's wharf." R. S. Spofford is said to have 
been the originator of the idea ; and it is, like him, sensa- 
tional. But such things, in order to have any effect, must 
be natural, and not spectacular. I would have walked to 
Philadelphia, albeit not a great walker, to see that ridicu- 
lous sight, — 

" 'Twas worth ten years of peaceful life, 
One glance at their array." 

I should have missed the erudite Winthrop, and the expe- 
rienced Ashmun, and Quincj' Adams, and Franklin Haven ; 
but I should have seen the old war-horse of Worcester- 



310 " WARRINGTON: " 

county Democrac}', Isaac Davis, and Spofford himself, and 
Josiah Dunham, and tlie hero of Big Bethel, Gen. Pierce of 
Freetown, and Matthew Field, and Ide of Taunton, who has 
turned his coat again for a post-oflBce, and "Gen." Swift, 
and the immaculate Woodbury, and Robert B. Hall, ex- 
humed for this particular occasion, and Albert Fearing and 
William Bates, the residuary legatees of the old Whig party, 
and Aspinwall and Prince, the old secretaries of the State 
Committee, and the virtuous Colby of Newbur3-port, and the 
candid Northend, and Bates and Avery, old wheel-horses of 
the Democratic organization, and the oratorical Alger, and 
De Witt, one of Worcester County's meanest sons, and, 
lastly, my old friend, Lieut. -Gov. Wright of Hinsdale, per- 
haps more widely known as " Mountaineer." Alas, alas ! 

"A mountain stream that ends in mud 
Methiulvs were melancholy." 

I wonder who "Mountaineer" was paired off against in 
that wondrous procession. Perhaps the gentleman who 
served out rations to our imprisoned soldiers at Anderson- 
ville. Oh, it would have been a sight for a lifetime ! I 
suppose the}' had some sort of music ; perhaps a song after 
some old cavalier tune, like Browning's : — 

" Sumner to hell, and his obsequies knell ; 
Serve Stevens and Boutwell and Greeley as well. 
Rebels, good cheer! Office is near! 
All ye good Copperheads, keep we not here. 
Marching along, fifty-score strong, 
Patriot gentlemen, singing this song." 

I notice that the Southern talkers at Philadelphia unani- 
mously and vehemently assert that their constitucnls " accept 
the situation." No, the}' don't. They don't even know 
what the " situation" is. As far as they do comprehend it, 
the}' are very much indisposed to accept it, except the ollice- 
seeking and office-holding branch, who will accept any thing. 
The " situation " is what the people choose to make it. The 
convicted murderer might as well hope to escape sentence 
and execution by crying out, after the verdict is rendered. 



PEN-PORTEAITS. 311 

"Don't go any farther, judge! I accept the situation. I 
acknowledge you and the jury have got the best of it." 
This won't do. Johnson may pardon and release the chief 
murderer at Fortress Monroe, as he has pardoned and 
released his subordinates all over the Southern country ; but 
he cannot restore to them political power. Slavery is abol- 
ished. The old robber-castle, from which issued the public 
enemy to burn and slay, is dismantled ; but there are plenty 
of caves and dens where he still lies in wait for the unsus- 
pecting traveller. The whole Southern country has got to 
be reformed. The " situation " means decency, civilization, 
Christianity, genuine democracy. The armies of Grant and 
Sherman were but pioneers. The}^ have broken up the 
wilderness, destroj'ed the worst dens, purified some of the 
foulest places ; but what is this foul stench from Memphis, 
this smell of blood from New Orleans? Accept the situa- 
tion indeed ! What say the Union men of Louisiana ? What 
say Hamilton of Texas, and Stokes of Tennessee ? And what 
think those dusk}' millions who cannot speak to us in conven- 
tions and addresses, but whose pra3-ers to God go up hourly 
for the complete realization of Abraham Lincoln's golden 
promise ? 

[June 28, 1867.] 

ANDREW^ Johnson's grand presidential tour. 

" There is fun to a Cornwallis," sa3-s Ilosea Biglow ; but 
Hosea in his Cornwallis days never saw such fun as he will 
see if he accompanies the President. It is Pratt and Mel- 
len ^ on a gigantic scale ; the whole nation looking on while 
its chief magistrate exhibits himself to the amusement of 
the laughers, and the consternation of the sober men, of the 
whole human race. If it were possible to imagine that the 
Almighty Ruler of the universe had gone mad, had reversed 
all his laws, and turned the world upside down and inside 
out, the spectacle now on exhibition would consistently be 

1 Bogus presidential candidates. 



312 " WARRINGTON: " 

explained ; not otherwise. "We nre passing the last and 
crudest ordeal. We have withstood rebellion, and war, and 
foreign hostility, and domestic discontent : can we withstand 
inextinguishable laughter, and the derision of the civilized 
world? To think of a great people, Avhicli has, within a year 
and a half, established its position as second to none among 
the great nations of the earth, allowing itself to be represented 
in its greatest cities, and through all its newspapers, b^' a 
man wlio is fitter for a cage in a mad-house than for the office 
he holds ! There are only two classes of men Avho can look 
on with patience, — those whose optimism is inextinguisha- 
ble, or, if you please, whose faith never flinches ; and, sec- 
ond, those who don't care a " continental " what does happen 
to the countr}', the world, or themselves. 

That grim old humorist, Thomas Carlyle, will have a jolly 
time over this affair. Having long ago given up all hope 
of the world, this Andy Johnson comes just in time to 
confirm his predictions of the approaching and everlasting 
smash. " Continents of empty vapor, of greedy self-con- 
ceits, commonplace hearsaj's, and indistinct loomings of a 
sordid chaos within him," — Carl3-le described Johnson's 
speeches long ago, and drew the most dismal forebodings 
from such oratory. I am by no means sure, however, that 
Carlyle's undisguised admiration for first-class murderers 
when clothed in official or regal robes may not reconcile him 
even to Johnson, windy and chaotic as his talk is. He is 
a "doer" as well as a "talker:" witness New Orleans. 
The telegraph compels him to be brief. To the rebel attor- 
ne3--general of Louisiana he says, " Usurpation will not be 
tolerated." Ilerron reads the cipher correctly, "Murder 
the convention ; ' ' and he goes to his work. To the rebel 
lieutenant-governor he sa^-s, "The military will sustain 
you." And Voorhees reads the cipher correctl}', " You 
have full liberty to kill." If Jeff Davis is responsible for 
Andersonville, much more is Andrew Johnson responsible 
for the murder of Dostie and his fellow-Unionists. The 
liand he waves to-day towards the negro-killers of the 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 313 

Five Points is red with the blood of the black men of New 
Orleans. Let Carl3'le be comforted. Here is a stump-orator, 
one of the windiest and foolishest, who can, upon occasion, 
do something besides talking. But no great harm will come 
of his speeches in the North. The States he is to pass 
through have loj-al governors ; and, though it is possible 
that the policy men of New York may feel encouraged to 
kill a few black men in honor of this back-handed Moses, 
Gov. Fenton and Gov. Curtin and Gov. Cox and Gov. 
Oglesb}' will, no doubt, be able to prevent any ver}' exten- 
sive demonstrations of enthusiasm in that direction. 

This tour is merely a show ; and Randall is the Van Am- 
burgh. Some young men who were at Manomet ^ last week 
had a caravan-song, one verse of which ran thus : — 

" This is the roaring lion : 

You'd better Iceep sliy of him, boys; 
Fpr, when he gets into a fit of rage, 
He malves the following noise." 

And here went forth a vociferation unpresentable to human 
eye by any or all of the letters of our alphabet, but which 
might be exhibited in the " visible speech " of the English- 
man who has lately discovered a new one, or pictorially 
by a woodcut like that representing Ben Hardin's voice in 
the Comic Almanac of thirty 3'ears ago, — a confused tan- 
gle of sounds, intended to simulate the roar of the enraged 
"king of beasts." This is Johnson's speech. It is "the 
following noise;" and that is the only description you can 
give of it. And j-ou will have the same noise telegraphed 
from ever}' stopping-place on the route to Chicago, and back 
again to Washington. The great representative of Ameri- 
can scoundrelism is on exhibition for the next ten daj-s. 
Price four cents a day ; or, if j'ou buy " The Herald," two. 
"Who would go to the theatre or museum, and pay a quarter 
or half a dollar, when such an entertainment can be so 
cheap I3' got ? 

1 ""Warrington's" summer-resort. 



314 ''WARRINGTON:" 

You should have seen the President in Boston bowing and 
scraping to the crowd. The grand master of ceremonies 
must have had a dreadful time of it, holding an umbrella 
over the august head of the distinguished guest. Instead of 
sitting quietly in his scat, raising his hat to the ladies, and 
occasionall}' bowing to the right and left, Johnson stood 
up as well as he could, which was but poorl}', under the 
umbrella, and sprawled about from one side to the other, 
scooping his hat this wa}- and that. I thought of the old 
nui'ser3'-liues : — 

" He began to compliment, 
And I began to grin : 
How do you do ? and bow do you do ? 
And bow do you again ? " 

He got very little applause, however. Near the Custom 
House, a man stationed himself with a huge bouquet of flowers 
and a compliraentarj^ note, purporting to be from the clerks 
in the sub-treasury, though I hear they had nothing to do 
with it. The poor fellow stood as long as he could, and then 
some one kindly handed him a chair ; and " he sot, and sot, 
and sot," till the minutes became hours. Two mortal hours 
did he wait, the observed of all observers ; but the great 
man did not appear. 

" The sun set, but set not his hope; 

Stars rose; bis faith was eadier up: 

Fixed on the enormous galaxy, 

Deeper and older seemed bis eyes ; 

And matcbed bis sufferance sublime 

The taciturnity of time." 

At last the tail end of the procession came, and the patient 
old fellow secured " the victory of endurance born." The 
dispenser of patronage was before him. He rushed up to the 
carriage, handed to the President the bouquet and the com- 
pliments of the clerks, and sweatily subsided with the smiles 
of the great chief and the approbation of his own conscience 
— lot us hope. If the President fails to remember this ser- 
vice, he is harder than adamant. And, O ye senators I inter- 
pose not, interfere not, I beseech ye, to keep the poor old 



PEN-POETEAITS. 315 

office-seeker, whoever he was, from securing the reward of 
his labors. 

But what if Johnson is an ass, a mule, a nuisance, an incu- 
bus, a succubus? The Hon. Mr. Wiseacre thinks he has not 
committed a "misdemeanor; " and the Hon. Mr. Somebody- 
Else thinks it won't do to have Ben Wade President a few 
weeks ; and the Hon. Mr. Lord-Knows- AVho is afraid it will 
have a bad effect on politics if we meddle with him ; and the 
rich and ignorant classes of State and Wall Streets fear a 
rise in gold. So he stays, and Congress continues to have a 
good time. 

[May 7, 1868.] 

Having a little time, I took up the impeachment trial as 
narrated by the official reporters and -the imaginative spe- 
cial correspondents. The trial proper, that is to say, the 
evidence and the interlocutory arguments, was good reading. 
Our old friend of the Middlesex-county bar was at home. 
He was the only law3^er of the dozen who was not rusty, 
except, perhaps, Evarts. Curtis and Stanbery long ago left 
off tr3-ing cases ; Boutwell never tried many ; Wilson and 
Bingham are lawyers after a Western fashion ; Groesbeck is 
a business-man with a legal education ; Nelson, a Tennessee 
stump-orator ; Williams, an ex-judge who never tried a cause 
as counsel in his life ; Logan was put on the list of managers 
to make up the number, and give the West its due promi- 
nence ; and Stevens, the ablest man of the lot, was too old 
to tr}' the case. Butler alone was fresh as a daisy. Evarts 
told somebody that he was going to show that he was " not 
afraid of Ben Butler." — "But," said the man who heard 
him, " he said it in a wa}' which convinced me that he was." 
It is not to be denied that the general showed greater 
resources as a trier of the case than an}' other man there. , 
Indeed, I understand that he declares that the President's 
counsel are quite unfit to try cases, and that, in Essex and 
Middlesex and Suffolk, he has met with much more danger- 
ous opponents. Of course he is depreciated, and cried out 



316 "WAIimXGTON:" 

against as an " Old Bailey " practitioner ; and this cr}- would 
do vcr}' well if he had not also shown great readiness and 
power in the argumentative work which was assigned to him. 
As for the long speeches, I have tried a few of them. 
Groesbeck's was good, shrewd, good-tempered, and eloquent ; 
Nelson's was b}- no means as bad as was ropresentad ; Bout- 
well's was a model of concise argumentation ; Wilson inter- 
jected one good speech ; but as for Evarts's and Bingham's, 
thej' are quite too eloquent to be first-rate. Ben Wade is 
reported to have said, after hearing speeches on both sides 
about a hundred hours, that he considered Demosthenes and 
Cicero two of the greatest pests and mischief-makers that 
ever existed. Evarts made some very good fun of the hole 
in the sky,^ which was a choice thing for Boutwell's enemies 
to la}' hold of, and the onl}- thing to object to in his whole 
argument ; but Bingham is quite too wordy and dogmatic to 
be read with pleasure. The boys at the Latin School have 
thus far looked in vain for " pieces to speak," and have been 
obliged, I believe, to fall back on Spartacus, Ilienzi, Lord 
Chatham, Col. Barre, Patrick Ilonry, Everett, Webster, and 
the old " stand-bys," " Sink or swim" still reverberates in 
the school-rooms of Boston ; and "Who is there to mourn 
for Logan?" is plaintively asked in the country villages. 

1 Travellers and astronomers inform us, that in the southern heavens, 
near the Southern Cross, there is avast space which the uneducated call 
the "liole in the sky," ^vhel•e the eye of man, with the aid of the powers of 
the telescope, lias been unable to discover nebuhc, or asteroid, or comet, 
or planet, or star, or sun. In that dreary, cold, dark region of space, 
which is only kno\vn to be less than infinite by the evidences of crea- 
tion elsewhere, the Great Author of celestial mechanism has left the 
chaos which was in the beginning. If this earth were capable of the 
sentiments and emotions of justice and virtue which in human mortal 
beings are the evidences and the pledge of our divine origin ami im- 
mortal destiny, it would heave and throe with the energy of the ele- 
mental forces of nature, and project this enemy of two races of men 
into that vast region, there forever to exist in a solitude eternal as life, 
or as the absence of life, emblematical of, if not really, that outer dark- 
ness of which the Saviour of man spoke in warning to those who are 
the enemies of themselves, of their race, and of their God. — Extract 
from G. H. Boutwell's Speech. 



PEN-P OR TRAITS. 317 

As for "There stands Massachusetts," and "Give me 
libert}', or give me death," and " Then, and not till then, let 
my epitaph be written," — wh}^, of course, it is not to be 
expected that these efforts will ever be superseded by the 
Binghams and Evartses of the Washington trial. " Renown 
and grace are dead ; " and, we may add, eloquence also. 

[May 21.] 
PRES. Johnson's impeachment. 
The verdict last Saturday did not surprise an3^bod3^ After 
Fessenden and Trumbull and Henderson made their speeches, 
a week before, or nearl}^ so, there was about as much chance 
for Johnson's acquittal as for the failure of Booth's pistol in 
1865. And the cases are very nearl}' parallel ; the main dif- 
ference between them being, that Booth was a stage-struck 
madman, and the treacherous senators were bribed, partly 
by mone}', and partly by the voluptuousness of revenge. I 
admire the spirit of the expression of "The Cincinnati 
Gazette," which says, " These senators need not shake their 
trial oaths at us." If there is an}^ thing worse than the 
treacher}^, it is the cant which pretends that it is the result 
of conscientious conviction. Ross's and Fowler's open and 
avouched corruptibility can be put up with ; but Fessenden's 
and Trumbull's pretence of a conscience is quite unbearable. 
If they had put in the plea old Mr. Weller desired to have 
entered in the Pickwick case, — viz., an alibi, — they could 
not have placed themselves in a more contemptible position. 
There is no justice in making Ross and Fowler the scape- 
goats. Fowler only followed his natural bent ; and the 
Republicans who voted to admit Tennessee into the Senate 
are well repaid by the votes of both its senators for acquittal. 
State pride went for something ; for the snuff-eaters and 
snuff-dippers of Tennessee are by no means deficient in State 
pride ; and Andy Johnson, after all, is the best representa- 
tive the border-element ever had in Washington. The model 
man of the West is not always polite aud courtly : he drinks 



318 " WARRING TOX: " 

whiskey, and "shouts the frequent damn." And even the 
Yankee, when 

" He whittles round St. Mary's Falls 
Upon his loaded wain," — 

even he, according to Whittier, 

" Leaves upon the pictured rocks 
His fresh tobacco-stain." 

But neither the "Westerner nor the Yankee can vie with John- 
son in those disgusting qualities which are peculiar to the 
Tennessee breed. Fowler and Patterson could not shame 
their ancient and most filthy Commonwealth b^- voting guilty. 
Van Winkle's vote, too, rcpaj's that totally unjustifiable de- 
parture from principle which made a State of West Virginia 
in the early part of the war. 

It will be safe to wager that half, at least, of the " radi- 
cals " who have been or will be chosen to Congress from 
the newly-constructed Southern States will be as purchasable 
as Fowler or Ross. The Senate and House better not be in 
a hurr}' to admit these new States. Let them look out for 
the congressmen, and, moreover, look out for the electors. 
One of the most serious aspects of the briber}^ business is 
the certainty that hereafter presidential electors can be 
bribed after they are chosen, and appear in Washington to 
give their votes. Bribery has for some time been a recog- 
nized political force in the legislatures of some States : it 
has now controlled the impeachment question, and settled 
the occupancy of the White House for nine months : it is 
much more likelj' to be used to settle the presidential ques- 
tion for the four years from 18G9 to 1873. 

To return to the scapegoats: "Rise, honest Muse, and 
sing the Man of Ross." Who is Ross? Perhaps he is 
needy ; in debt, and out at the elbows : — 

"So weary with disaster, tugged with fortune, 
That he would set his life on any chance 
To mend it, or be rid on't." 

Doubtless he has his excuse ; and I'll wager that it is a 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 319 

better one than Fessenden's dj-spepsia, or Trumbull's scru- 
ples. As George Canning pra^-ed to be saved from a candid 
friend, we shall by and by have to put up our supplications 
to be saved from the direful effects of conscience. Com- 
mend me to Ross and Fowler rather than to Fessendeu and 
Trumbull. It is too contagious. Whether Fessenden caught 
it of Trumbull, or Trumbull of Fessenden, is uncertain ; 
possibly Grimes or Henderson was broken out with it first : 
but it was a most dangerous complaint. Money might be 
exhausted ; but, when a batch of old law3-ers had an eruption 
of conscience, it was all up with impeachment. 

It will not do to pass over Chief Justice Chase. He is 
writing letters to some of his old friends in this region, say- 
ing, that if the question had been, " Shall the President be 
removed? " there would probably have been two-thirds in the 
affirmative; but as it was, "Is the President guilty of this 
article?" the article failed. This is onl}'' a new statement 
of the conscience dodge. Is the chief justice such a fool as 
to suppose that the people do not see through this ridiculous 
plea ? The}' know that the question was precisely that, — 
Shall Johnson be removed? — and his sophistrj- can no more 
disguise the fact than his judicial robes can disguise the bitter 
partisan malignity and disappointment which controlled his 
action throughout the trial. The excuses which are possible 
for Fessenden and Trumbull fail entirely where S. P. Chase 
is concerned. He is intellectually strong enough, and the 
tone of his mind is radical and utilitarian enough, to enable 
him to discard precedents and the mould}' opinions of the 
past. For instance, he was never, or at least he has not 
been for the last twenty-five years, imposed upon, by the 
traditions of the lawyers, judges, and statesmen, as to the 
constitutionality of slavery. He was as radical as Lysander 
Spooner, and in the same direction. He cares nothing for 
the Madison Papers, or Bracton, or " The Year-Books." He 
never, like Fessenden, had his sense squeezed out of him by 
Marshall's and Webster's ponderous speeches and decisions, 
as old Giles Corey was pressed to death by heavy weights in 



320 "WAIililNGTON: " 

the days of Salem witchcraft. Mr. Chase knows enough to 
discard precedents, and act on common-sense principles ; and 
he can see a fallacy as clearly as Bentham or Sydne}- Smith 
could see one. He has deliberately put on this legal cloak 
for a dishonest purpose ; and his action in this case, with 
the action of the great lawyers who have followed his exam- 
ple, leads common men to the conclusion that it will not do 
to trust law3-ers in great emergencies. " One thing I suppli- 
cate 30ur Highness," said Vasco Nunez de Balboa in a 
letter to the King of Spain (lol3), "for it is much to 3-our 
service ; and that is, that 3-ou would give orders, under a 
great penalty, that no bachelor of law, or of an3' thing else, 
except medicine, shall be allowed to come to these parts of 
the terra firma ; for no bachelor comes here who is not a 
devil, and who does not lead the life of a devil. And not 
onl3' are the3' bad themselves, but the3' also make and con- 
trive a thousand lawsuits and iniquities." The "furred 
homicides," as Dr. Parr called 'them, who sat in Westmin- 
ster Hall, and administered the penal laws in the da3-s of 
Romilly, had their admirers, and so Salmon P. Chase has 
his ; but the3' will be respectabl3' considered b3' histor3' in 
comparison with him. He has disgraced even the judicial 
ermine. 

I do not expect, with some people, that this will be the 
last of And3'. He has the stuff in him for a hundred brawls 
yet. His reputation as a bruiser is not at all damaged by 
the denial, in his answer, that he ever made the naught3' 
speeches at Cleveland and St. Louis ; for everybod3' knows 
that he did. Let him stand on that record. He is not the 
man to wrap his mantle, that is to say his overcoat, round 
him, and undertake to console himself with talk about d3'ing 
with dignity and honor. He is more likel3' to be of FalstafTs 
opinion concerning that ethereal qualit3' : " Can honor set to 
a leg ? uo : or an arm ? no : or take away the grief of a 
wound? no. Honor hath no skill in surger3', then? No. 
"What is honor? a word. What is in that word honor? air. 
A trim reckoning ! Who hath it ? he that died o' Wednes- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 321 

day. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. It is 
insensible, then? yea, to the dead. But will it not live 
with the living? no. Wh}'? detraction will not suffer it: 
therefore, I'll none of it: honor is a mere scutcheon." 
Depend upon it, we shall see And}^ on the stump again 
before many weeks, and, on the first opportunit}', running 
for governor or senator, or alderman at the very least. 



322 "WARRINGTON:' 



chapti:r XI. 

ACTION IN MASSACHUSETTS FROM 1868 TO 1871. 

[""Warrington's " Letters in Springfield Republican, July 2, 18C8.] 

THE NEW-YORK DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 

People here had begun to settle down into the belief that 
Hendricks ("Tom Hendricks") would be nominated at 
New York ; but to-day there is a stor}' of a positive decli- 
nation on his part. "Tom " is not a bad first name for a 
candidate. It is much better than Salmon. " Our Salmon," 
"Bull}' for Salmon ! " would not be euphonious and tripping 
upon the tongue like "Tom Hendricks," "Our Tom," and 
" Bull}' for Tom ! " Can anybod}' tell what Pendleton's first 
name is? "Pendleton" is good: it has an aristocratic, 
South-Carolinian, slave-driving sound ; and nothing suits 
your genuine Democrat of the American sort like an easy 
superiority of name and maimer. Chase's robes are \evy 
well ; but he has worn them so unskilfull}-, that the}' have 
not been specially becoming. If the reverend rector of St. 
Barabbas should, after service in the forenoon, walk down 
to the stable of the Metropolitan Railroad, or to an}' other 
stable, take a dilapidated chair (such as stables have) , lean 
back, pull out his pipe, take a smoke, and between the 
whiffs swear an oath or two, and tell dirty stories with the 
stable-boys, the Church of St. Barabbas would soon away 
with him : not even his robes would save him. Chase has 
not been careful to preserve his dignity. He put on con- 
siderable, to serve his purpose of treachery during the im- 
peachment trial ; but everybody knew what he was driving 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 323 

at. Then there is Frank Blair. There is no cant about 
him. He is a drunken rowch', and will not do. The Democ- 
racy must have a gentleman. Its candidates have generally 
been gentlemen : witness Van Buren, Buchanan, Pierce, — 
rascals, perhaps, but well-mannered. Was not McClellan 
a well-behaved person, and eke a pious one? I think we 
shall have a gentlemanl}^ and well-mannered candidate to 
represent the old rebel element : if not Pendleton, then 
Hendricks, who alwa3's speaks in long, solemn, and measured 
sentences ; or perhaps Sej'mour, for I have not 3'et given up 
the idea that this most gentlemanly and adroit representa- 
tive of the New- York school may yet tui'n up. Here is a 
gentleman of high, the highest " tone." I doubt whether 
even Eoss or Pitt Fessenden could more gracefully put on an 
air of offended dignit}', when charged with a rascality, than 
Seymour. Greeley, in his indignation, calls him a liar ; and 
so unquestionably he is. But with what a grace he lies ! — a 
very scamp-Chesterfield. Contrast him with Johnson, or 
Frank Blair, or Nasby, — serviceable rank-and-file men, no 
doubt, good men for the cross-roads and the corner-grocer)', 
but not fit for the mahogany and the cabinet. Your most use- 
ful Democrat, in the long-run, is the man like Seymour, who 
not only utterly despises Democrac}-, but who believes, with 
the New- York school, — the Van Burens, Sewards, and 
Weeds, — that there is no virtue extant, and that the world is 
in every thing governed by humbug. Pendleton is a more 
honest man. Hendricks has a sort of faith in the people, 
got b}^ residence among them for a long time. All these 
men believe more or less in the capacity of men for govern- 
ment ; but Sej'mour, like Seward, onl}"- in the capacit}* of 
man to be governed, and to be humbugged. He is jowc 
man, O Democratic delegates ! 

There is a pretty little poem by Wordsworth, with the 
title, "We are Seven," which everj'bod}' is familiar with ; 
and, though it is a pity to make fun of it, the late funeral- 
obsequies over Mr. Fessenden' s remains prompt me to give 
some lines of quotation from it. The little maid, seen and 



324 ''WABBINOTON :" 

talked with by the contenipU^tive poet, as you will remember, 
insists that there are seven sistci's and brothers in all, 
though the poet, from his enumeration, can only make out 
five. She insists, — 

*' Seven boys and girls are we : 
Two of us in tlie cluircliyard lie, 
Beneath the clmrcliyard-tree." 

The poet still demurs ; but the maiden proceeds to demon- 
strate, — 

" Tlieir graves are green, they may be seen, 
The little maid replied* " 

and more minutel}^ she adds, — 

" My stockings there I often knit, 
My kerchief there I hem ; " 

(you observe she is in the manufacturing and dr^'-goods 
line : Naumkeag steam cotton-mills, Indian-orchard facto- 
ries, and big commission-houses, grow from just such small 
knitting and hemming operations,) — 

" And there upon the ground I sit, 
And sing a song to them." 

A June idyl is here prefigured : — 

" And often after sunset, sir, 
Wlien it is light and fair, 
I take my little porringer, 
And eat my supper there." 

Then the little creature goes on to tell how sister Jane 
died lii-st, and then how brother John was forced to go ; and 
finally she makes the poet, who is not half as dull as he pre- 
tends to be, understand how the seven are made up. Fifty 
or sixty Boston gentlemen proposed to take their little por- 
ringers, and sit down and eat their little suppers by the 
political grave of the Maine senator ; and he, humoring the 
idea that he is still among the living, but knowing that 
the delusion would be dispelled if he should accede to their 
request, by some spiritual machinery or other (planchctte, 
perhaps) replies that he has no stomach for a dinner, and 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 325 

declines to come. Plancliette, however, is exceeding ill- 
natured. She scolds ver}' bitterl}'. 

Win', we have had no such talk for weeks and months. 
The senator, or his shade, falls to cursing like a scullion. 
Hear him: "The air was filled with lying rumors, which 
found their wa}- to the public ear through the appropriate 
channels. ' ' ' ^ The appropriate channels ' ' ! Do 3'ou hear that, 
Greele}'? Do 3-ou hear that, " Cincinnati Gazette"? That 
means 3'ou, though the senator is afraid to speak out very 
plumpl}". " Denunciation, vituperation, calumnj', threats 
of personal violence and of lifelong infam}', were profusely 
hurled at all who might dare to disobey the public senti- 
ment. The men who resorted to these appliances were 
accustomed to the use of such weapons, and knew well how 
to wield them. Unscrupulous, familiar with detraction, 
believers neither in public nor private virtue, — or, if believ- 
ers, considering both out of place in politics, —^ the}' could 
not resist such an opportunit}'. Washington was filled with 
men ready to jump into places to be made vacant (sotto 
voce, by the removal of the score or two of mj- own relatives 
now in snug and comfortable places) . Gamblers thronged 
the saloons, and the character and reputation of senators 
upon whose votes the result was supposed to depend rose and 
fell, while the telegraph was at hand to carry over the wires 
to the homes and friends of those senators every calumny 
which disappointed ambition could imagine, or cupidity and 
malignity could invent." 

And so on, ad nauseam. "Well, Mr. Senator Fessenden, 
who is to blame but yourself for this unpleasant state of 
affairs? Nobod}' betted or gambled on Lot Morrill's vote. 
Everybody knew that Maine had one honest senator, whose 
vote was not doubtful, and could not be changed by money, 
nor revenge, nor spite, nor dyspepsia, nor any thing else. 
Nobod}' undertook to slander Wilson, or Sumner, or Patter- 
son, or Cragin. They were known to be men of honor, and 
not canting gwast-judges, putting on some skunk-sJcin robe 
in lieu of ermine, and parading what they termed their judi- 



326 "WARRINGTON:" 

cial oaths as an excuse for their perjiny. It was only the 
Fessendens and Rosses and Fowlers and Hendersons and 
Grimeses and Trumbulls who were speculated on ; for only 
they were in the market. It was only they who were talked 
of and followed ; for they only were " on the street." 



[July 4.] 

THE MOST GLORIOUS FOURTH. 

Unquestionabh' the most glorious Fourth we have had j'et. 
"We shall not have a genuine and perfect one until 1869, 
after Johnson has gone back to his snuff-eating constitu- 
ents. Perhaps Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony will say 
we shall not have one until 18 — , that distant year when 
women shall have all their rights. But spite of the presi- 
dential anachronism, and the limping and halting condition 
of the female-suffrage question, we shall have a respectable 
Fourth by comparison with those of previous years. I am 
going to have a grand explosion of torpedoes. Huzza ! 
that's for the Union ; that's for the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion ; that's for the surrender of Lee ; that's for a patriotic 
Congress ; that's a grand funeral-piece in memory of Lin- 
coln ; that's for the Reconstruction Bill ; that's for the 
radical leaders ; that's for the army and navy ; that's for 
universal suffrage and universal education ; that's for the 
ladies ; that's for peace and a regenerated country. In 
addition to this, I have a grand pin-wheel for impeachment, 
which I hope will not prove to be a fizzle ; but I am afraid it 
will, pin-wheels are so apt to be failures. 

TUNNEL INFLUENCE AND THE LOBBY. 

For the lobb}-, with its corrupting influences, Massachu- 
setts is indebted to the Iloosac Tunnel. Fifteen years ago, 
it was unknown. Now it has become so powerful and bold, 
that it is openly boasted that the " third house " is a necessary 
and meritorious adjunct of the legislature. And so arranged 
and systematized is the business, that, when the regular 



PEJSf-PORTRAITS. 327 

hands can't do the work, Adams and Westfield, not to men- 
tion other places, are prompt to send assistance ; and so 
bold have these fellows become, that they do not confine 
themselves to the legislative halls, but even invade the 
executive chamber, and pi}' his Excellency with their arts 
and arguments. The tunnel interest does not pa}' the lobby 
much money directly ; but the lobby works with and for it, 
and always has, for the influence it can obtain to push other 
things with, and which will pay. As far as the tunnel itself 
is concerned, it is put through on the " you-tickle-me-and- 
I'll-tickle-3'ou " principle. What a power that is which can 

" Force whole regions, in despite 
O' geographj^ to change their site," 

the people of the State will be apt to realize before they 
have paid, in the shape of taxes, the nearly ten million 
dollars appropriated by the 1868 legislature. It has got to 
that now, that ever}' thing and every man that Avill not pay 
tribute to the tunnel and the lobby are put down in short- 
metre ; while all measures that will are put through with a 
rush. 

"He comes to shore who sails with me " 

has been the boast of the tunnel and the lobby interest. 

That iniquitous measure, the Maverick East-Boston Bridge 
project, never would have gone through, especially over the 
governor's veto, if its friends had not promised to vote for 
the tunnel. Tlio appropriation for Provincetown Harbor 
would have been voted down, if the South-shore folks had 
not gone for the tunnel. The permission given to the towns 
along the line of the Williamsburg and North Adams Rail- 
road, to take stock in the enterprise, would have been with- 
held, had not the advocates of that measure given in their 
adherence to the tunnel. Mr. Plunkett of Pittsfield, an 
old-line Democrat, went to Boston determined to oppose all 
appropriations, especially the tunnel. If he had done so 
actively, does any one suppose he would have been made 
State director of the Western Railroad, and could have car- 



328 " WAJiniNGTOX : " 

vied the bill for the removal of the Berkshire-county ])uihl- 
ings to Pittsfiekl? He voted against the tunnel, indeed, if 
he voted at all. But why didn't he make his promised speech 
against it? and what did he do with the facts and figures 
furnished him for that purpose? Are there any persons 
green enough to suppose the appropriation of forty thousand 
dollars for the Agricultural College at Amherst could have 
been carried on " its merits," if ]\Ir. "Ward of that town had 
not, in turn, supported the tunnel? If so, let me disabuse 
their minds at once. Fussy little Mr. Mixter of Ilardwick, 
an ardent opponent of the tunnel heretofore, who made a 
speech against it in 1854, and who has been a-going to stop 
this squandering of thi people's money all along, became a 
sudden convert to the tunnel this year, and after getting all 
his available means into government-bonds before the 1st 
of May, and thus be^-ond the reach of taxation, voted five 
millions of other people's mone}' for the tunnel without 
flinching. 

Mr. Crittenden of Otis may have supported the tunnel on 
principle ; but it is more than supposed that he did it, and 
his friends with him, more to get through the appropriation 
for the Lee and New-Haven Railroad than any thing else. 
The House virtuously voted, one day, not to buy a thousand 
copies of Gen. Schouler's five-dollar historv of "Massachu- 
setts in the Rebellion." The mistake was discovered, and the 
vote promptly changed, the next day. It is needless to add, 
that Senator Schouler has cordially supported the tunnel with 
voice and vote. Last j'ear, the vote of three millions in aid of 
the Hartford and Erie Railroad was put through by the tunnel 
people, — for a consideration, of course; and, as a curious 
illusi ration of how things go here, it may be added, that the 
Hartford and Erie interest took np and carried the loan to 
the North Adams and Williamsburg Railroad, along-with its 
own bill, and without expense to the latter corporation, who 
put in their request late, and had no particular claims or 
hopes. 

But why multiply instances? If I have not given enough 



PEN-PORTnAITS. 329 

to show honest people how log-rolling and corruption pre- 
vail at Boston, let them apply to their representative for 
more. I will onl}' add, that it is a fact, that, at the last end, 
sixteen members of the House were bought for the tunnel 
by the promise that the per diem should be increased to six 
dollars a da}' ; and this bargain was kept in the lower 
branch. But to the credit of Senator Bowerman of Berk- 
shire it should be said, that, though a friend of the tunnel, 
he refused to perfect the swindle in the upper House. Be- 
sides all this trading and bargaining, there are plenty of 
rumors of the actual purchase of members with mone^' ; but, 
as I cannot speak positively on this point, it is better to say 
nothing. 

It has come to be useless for anj' honest man to try to get 
an}' honest measure through our legislature on its merits 
alone. People have come to understand, that, if they have 
any business at the State House, the}' must at least hire the 
lobby to keep quiet. But I must pause here, though not for 
want of material, I assure you. But I have already said 
enough to call the attention of the people of Massachusetts 
to the chicanery and corruption which prevail at the Capitol ; 
and that is all that is necessary. It rests with them to say 
whether our political and material interests shall be left any 
longer to the control of men who are 

" Resolved to ruin or to rule the State," 

evidently not caring much which. Can the people, can the 
Republican party, stand this thing any longer? 

A fellow once sat in the pit of the Providence theatre 
(Providence is as good a place as any to locate the story 
in), and, observing on his play-bill that "an interval of 
twenty years is supposed to elapse between the fourth and 
fifth acts," rose and retired, saying, " Very few of the audi- 
ence will live till the conclusion of the piece." I fear it is 
the same with the tunnel, as far as such old stagers as you 
and I arc concerned. JMr. Whiting of Pembroke, the most, 
original and one of the ablest men in the House, said in one 



330 "WAnniXGTOX:" 

of his unique speeches, that the people in his region, man}' 
of them, believed the tunnel to have been brought over in 
" The Ma3'flower." If, contrar}' to expectation, the contract 
takes it out of the legislative halls, and relegates it to the 
executive chatnber and the treasury department, does not the 
Edward Crane and N. B. Shurtlert' Commission, with Edward 
Hamilton for secretar}', loom up in the distance? I have put 
into m}- index ^ "'Boston and Lake Ontario," My successor 
will never see an end to that entry. 

The tunnel and the railroad need no description, of 
course, I think it is impossible, however, to see the hole 
in the mountain, Avithout being, in the abstract at least, a 
" friend of the tunnel." If the work is ever completed, — 
and it seems evident that nothing but time and money are 
wanted for its completion ; that is, that there is no insupera- 
ble natural obstacle, — Massachusetts and its people will 
always be proud of it. It will be, indeed, the thing best 
worth seeing in the whole State. 

MEDICAL AND OTHER JARGON. 

The question between homoeopathy and allopathy is pretty 
much like that between law and equity, — only a question 
which is the bigger humbng of the two. The " allopaths" 
have made a serious blunder in not getting their system 
legalized, consolidated by common law, and copper-fastened 
b}- ten or fifteen thousand authoritative decisions. Then the 
case of Ear-ache vs. Thomas a Beckct, or Chesterfield vs. 
Carbuncle, would have settled every thing. Homoeopathy 
spreads, not because people, when you pin them down to it, 
believe in it, but because it is a protest against calomel and 
jalap and bleeding, as Methodism was a protest against 
the " grand old ugliness" (as Rev. Mr. Ames called it) of 
Calvinism, and as Spiritualism satisfies the craving desire 
for a belief in another world, which the common run of 
orthodox and liberal preachers have not brains enough to 
deduce from nature or revelation, or which, perhaps, cannot 



1 To the Journal of the House. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 331 

be deduced from nature or revelation b}^ any amount of 
brains. And homoeopath^', like Spiritualism, is peculiarly 
open to the quack. It requires no great outfit of intelli- 
gence to practise it in the average country-town or in the 
city. If 3'ou can persuade the sick man that there is some 
mj'sterious ■wa}- in which the spoonful of diluted nothing 
works, that is all 50U want. You can find half a dozen 
tumblers in every house ; the pump is handy ; and the 3-oung- 
est child can watch the clock : and all the patient is required 
to do is to take his spoonful ever}- half- hour or two hours, 
and then pa}^ the bill, or let it be settled by his adminis- 
trator. 

Mr. Emerson said once, that the only difference between 
having a doctor, and not having one, is this : If you don't 
have one, yow die ; if 30U do have one, 3-ou die : but, in this 
last case, your relations find out what 3'ou died of. Not 
unless a learned man is called in to make an examination ; 
for I take it the principal trouble with allopath and homoeo- 
path is, that the big or the little dose is given generally 
without the slightest idea, or with only a guess, more or 
less shrewd, as to what ails the patient, and what the eflfect 
of the medicine is to be. There seems to be something 
exact in surgery ; but dosing is mostly guess-work. The 
laugh being all against the old-liners, we ought not to in- 
crease its volume. And really there is something so con- 
temptible in the whole globule sj'stem, with its- similia 
similibus (derived, way back of Hahnemann, from the man 
of Thessaly who scratched his eyes out by jumping into one 
brier-bush, and scratched 'em in again by jumping into 
another), that we cannot afford to let the old society be 
laughed at too much. It has more learning than the new 
school ; and learning is, in the long-run, the foe to dogma 
and superstition, and ought to be encouraged as against 
empiricism. 

The opinion seems to be general, that the homoeopathists 
give less medicine than other doctors, and that this is a gain. 
I doubt whether this is the fact. Homoeopath}^, it seems to 



332 " WARBINGTON: " 

me, has proved itself attractive, probabh' on account of its 
novelt}' and mysterj', to an inordinate and disproportional 
number of ignorant asses, compared with the old-line prac- 
tice ; and it makes ver}- little differonce whether an ass 
practises homoeopathy, or allopath}', or Thompsonianism, or 
eclecticism. In the first place, he is almost sure to mistake 
the symptoms and the disease ; and, even if ho guesses right 
here, he will mistake as to the remed}'. Ilalmcmann would 
be as astounded at the sight of the mass of our present 
homoeopathic doctors as Drs. Bigelow or Bowditcli are at 
the sight of the quacks who practise under the old system ; 
and as it makes but little difference, if any, Avhat system of 
medicine a fool selects as his way of enriching himself at 
the public expense, so the degree of faitli and wonder with 
which an ignorant public or neighborhood looks upon its 
homosopathic doctor, and the assiduity with which it watches 
the tumblers and the clock to see tliat the remedies are ad- 
ministered exactl}' ever}- fifteen seconds during the da}', is as 
pitiable as the faith and wonder men used to have in and for 
the old saddle-bags of the fiimily physician, who, generally 
speaking, was a man of some education, to say the least. 
The apothecaries ask for some legislation to keep ignorant 
people out of the profession ; and their proposition is worth 
considering, tliough the true way of making quacks power- 
less is to instruct the people. 

The apothecaries have been to the Committee on the 
Judiciary to protest against making a law that prescrijjtions 
shall be written in the Englisli language. Dr. Buckingham 
sent a letter, in wliich he took the ground that tliis would be 
a very dangerous proceeding. Mr. Ilovey (member of the 
House), Dr. Lincoln, Prof. Markoe, and Dr. Arnold, stated 
their views clearly ; the main point being that Latin was a 
universal language, and that drugs were known by different 
English names in various places. Indeed, it was admitted 
that these names were arbitrarily fixed by conventions, and 
some of them had no meaning whatever, except to the ini- 
tiated, like a password to a Masonic lodge, or Tappertit's 



PEK-PORTRAITS. 333 

secret society. So, if any of your readers get a prescrip- 
tion, prefaced hy an R witli a stab through the middle of it, 
reading, 

"3iij9;s3 Hoppergollop ; s i j 9; s x o," 

he need not think he can ascertain what it is by going even 
to a pharmacopoeia. Tlie innocent drugs ma}^ safely be 
labelled in English, and perhaps the sick man will save his 
money at least ; and, if the poisons are properl}' labelled, 
the patient maj' refuse to take them, and there will be a clear 
gain all round. Whatever the doctors may think, this is 
not a question between them and the apothecaries : on the 
contrar}', the sick man has a good deal to do with it. 

The apothecaries, if the}' are interested in it, ought to 
allow a clause to be inserted, compelling doctors to write all 
prescriptions in the English language. That relic of mj's- 
tery and superstition, the Latin prescription, ought to be 
abolished. No man with self-respect — and b}' this I mean 
with respect for the safety of his own body — will take a pre- 
scription from a doctor to an apothecary without getting the 
Latin translated into English. How does it happen that the 
three professions — physic, law, and theolog}' — find it neces- 
sary', in order to get a living, to make use of jargon ? There 
is jargon to make you believe j'our soul is in danger from 
hell, and that onlj- the creed of the Church can save it ; jar- 
gon to make you believe that only a law3'er and a suit can 
save 3'our estate from 3'our eneni}' ; and, worst of all, this 
medical jargon, to make 3'ou believe the ignorant experi- 
menter upon 3'our bowels and brains knows more than 30U 
do about them. When will jargon be done awa3^ with? By 
all means, let the apothecaries commence this reform in their 
department. 

[July 8, 18()9.] 
THE PROHIBITGUY LAW, AND LAWS GENERALLY. 

The prohibitor3' law proper was passed in 1852, and 
amended and perfected in 1855. In 1867 it bore the signa- 



334 " WARRINGTON: " 

ture of Henry J. Gardner, a Boston rum Democrat, The 
constabulary law was enacted by a Republican legislature, 
but was draughted b^' Gov. Andrew himself in 18G7, the 
leading advocate of a license law ; and was voted for by any 
number of Boston men, who afterward joined secret organiza- 
tions to effect its repeal, among them Mr. A. O. Allen, who 
figured as the leader of th«P. L. L.'s in the Republican Con- 
vention. Gov. Andrew was again and again renominated and 
re-elected by the Republicans when known to be against pro- 
hibition, and after vetoing the favorite measure of the prohibi- 
tionists, — the Jurj'Bill. Both the prominent candidates for 
speaker in 1866, Mr. Stone and Mr. Jewell, were well-known 
opponents of the prohibitory' law ; and they divided the whole 
vote of the House. Mr. J. Q. Adams was chosen to the legis- 
lature of 1866 as a Republican, and remained in good standing 
until he ratted to the Copperheads, for reasons solely connect- 
ed with national politics. It is simpl}- impossible for the 
Republicans to declare themselves on one side or the other 
of the liquor question. The reason why the law cannot be 
enforced, and why it will, before long, either be upheld, or 
become a dead-letter (as it was in 1864), is simply, that a 
majurity of the people buy liquor, and use it as a beverage, 
more or less of it ; and, as far as m}' observation goes, the 
Republicans drink their share. 

The people of Massachusetts, I am confident, would be 
glad to settle the liquor question on a fair basis. It is im- 
possible to settle it at present on an3' principle ; for neither 
the license party nor the prohibitorj- part}- hold to a principle, 
and one is just as far from holding to it as the other. The 
legislature came very near carr3-ing out the desire of the 
people, and framing a law with a fair prospect of perma- 
nence. What prevented them? On the one hand, the political 
interests of the handful of Democrats in the House, which 
were, of course, adverse to any settlement on a decent founda- 
tion ; and, on the other hand, the stupidity of the State Alli- 
ance. Now, according to my observation, the only way for a 
minority party to get power, or for a minority principle to get 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 335 

itself enacted into a law, is either to j'ield and trim, or to set 
up independently, and defy opposition. It is just as clear as 
any thing can be in politics, that the prohibitory part}' and 
principle are in a minority in Massachusetts. The only time 
the issue has been tried since the first Maine Law was passed 
(in 1852), the law was buried beneath an adverse majorit}^ 
of thirty thousand or forty thousand. It may not be polite to 
say so ; but he is a fool who denies or doubts this. William 
B. Spooner don't doubt it ; neither does Judge Pitman. 

Mr. Spooner and Mr. Pitman represent these two ways of 
getting ahead in the prohibitory line, Mr. Spooner is will- 
ing to j'ield and trim. He did his best to procure a modifica- 
tion of the law, and, for a time, carried men enough with him 
to control the issue. Mr. Pitman is not willing to 3'ield or 
trim : if others do so, he will acquiesce (as in the exclusion 
of cider from the law) , but with a sigh of regret over the 
weakness of poor human nature ; and he probabl}' feels that 
such a yielding only postpones the day of independent action. 
The majority of the alliance are men who have not political 
sagacit}' enough to win, like Mr. Spooner, nor political and 
moral independence enough, like Judge Pitman, to set up, or 
even contemplate setting up, a new part}- ; and the result of 
their control is, or will be, the ultimate defeat of their law 
and their cause, so far as they are intrusted with its care. 

When the advocates of any principle or measure ascer- 
tain with a good degree of certainty that one large part}' is 
all hostile to them, and a still largei party is indifferent, if 
not hostile, and that it has nothing to hope in the way of 
active friendship from either, there are only two sensible waj-s 
of proceeding : first, to accept the situation, keep as much of 
the law as the people will tolerate, execute it as faithfulh* as 
prudence will allow, and devote attention to moral and intel- 
lectual and social methods of promoting their reform ; or, 
second, organize independentl}', and try to get out of the 
fears of parties what cannot be got out of their love. 

In the House, a majority of the Republican members voted 
for a modification of the old law. Almost enough of its 



336 "WARRINGTON:" 

friends broke away from the control of the alliance, and 
followed Mr. Spooner, to effect their object in spite of the 
votes of the fifteen or twenty Democrats which were steadily 
given for the law in all its strictness. The law went to the 
Senate ; and there the adherents of Mr. Spooner' s views were 
still stronger, and they carried, on three or fonr occasions, a 
modification of the law : whereupon, b}- a union of Blifil and 
Black George, the law was killed. It was too prohibitive 
for the license men, and too liberal for the prohibitive men. 
Then the moderate men juelded, reconsidered tlieir votes, 
re-inserted lager-beer, and passed the bill, cider onl}' ex- 
cluded. I think this result unfortunate, especiall}' in its 
probable effect on the general legislation of the State. B}' 
political machiner}', aided b}' that inevitable stupidity 
against which even the gods are powerless, the people (who 
wanted a law to close grog-shops which could be enforced, 
and was not liable to repeal every year) — the people are 
baffled. Tliey have got to tr}' again. But tlie opportunity 
for a fair trial is not likel}' to come just j-et. In 18G7 a 
secret society, organized b}' the grog-shop interest, had the 
management of the re-action against the extravagances of 
the alliance and of Constable Jones, left without control as 
ho was by executive discretion. 

This State police has a queer history. It was in Gov. 
Andrew's brain as long ago as December, 18G0, or Januar}-, 
18G1, when he found himself unable to put down MaAor 
Wightman's mob at the Tremont Temple, and was so taken 
to task l>y "Wendell Phillips for not going behind or stretch- 
ing his authority', and sending down a military force to the 
Temple to preserve order. " Mr. Phillips," said the govern- 
or, "you are a law3-er ; there are a hundred lawyers within 
five minutes' walk of the State House : if you, or any one 
of those hundred lawyers, will show me any authority' I 
possess b}' the laws of the State to put down the riot, I will 
exercise it at once." Born of this difficulty Avas, in due 
time, the State constabular}-. The opportunity' came when 
the temperance party was pressing the metropolitan plan ; 



PEN FOR TRAITS. 33 7 

and the governor interposed, by Mr. Sawin of Natick, this 
favorite scheme of his. 

Sucli an organization as the P. L. L. could not, of course, 
make a law which would stand. From the extreme of the 
deep well and the moss-covered bucket to the other extreme 
of the red-hot tumbler of rot-gut was too much. So, taking 
advantage of a presidential election, and of the natural dis- 
gust at excessive drinking, the legislature of 1868 came in, 
with the result we now are likely to see. I don't predict 
any such overthrow as that of 18G7. The history of the 
P. L. L. ought to go for something ; but, if a re-action comes, 
who will be to blame for it? Not 3"ou or I, dear Beptiblican. 
We can, at least, have our " I told 3-ou so," can we not? 
and, more than that, the satisfaction of fighting against both 
these pestilent cliques. The legislation of the State suffers 
incalculabl}' from the domination of secret political orders. 
WQiat right has an American machinist, or shoemaker, or 
laborer, to demean himself b}- imitating this feudal nonsense ? 
It is bad enough for wealthy men and aspiring politicians to 
get up such high-sounding organizations : an American self- 
respecting democrat ought to keep out of them. Bat it 
remains true that our recent legislatures, besides being 
unnecessarily spun out, are too largely composed of men 
who are nominated by secret cliques. The head-centre of 
the rot-gut division of the P. L. L. gets here one 3'ear, and 
is succeeded by the grand perpetual secretary of the inde- 
pendent order of water-drinkers. What these gentlemen 
think of railroad policy, insurance policy, suffrage, the har- 
bors and flats, the judiciary, and other questions of general 
interest, is of no consequence compared with their views of 
what it is expedient for a man to eat and drink. 

The worshipful grand faddj'-duddj's of both the temper- 
ance and rum organizations are prett}' sure to be small men, 
and unfit for public affairs. And here is the secret of the 
crude legislation of recent years, which I would not b}- an}' 
means exaggerate ; for I do not think so poorly of our laws 
as man}' people profess to. If they are not the perfection 



338 " WARRING TON: " 

of wisdom, the grand average of political intelligence in the 
Commonwealth makes tlicm, on the whole, tolerabl}' wise, and 
generally in accordance with a good state of public opinion. 

Practicall}-, the people of the State stand precisely where 
Ensign Stebbins stood in 1852 (and I use this iUustration 
because it is my own thunder ; and, having become a standard 
political joke, I am disposed to reclaim it). The ensign's 
famous declaration occurred in a letter to the Mayor of .Sac- 
carap : he avowed himself in favor of the Maine Law, but 
opposed to its enforcement. So long as the sale of liquor 
was practically unrestrained, the law was not unpopular 
enough to excite an}'' special commotion ; the moment it 
began to be enforced to the inconvenience of temperate men, 
it had to go down. It never went upon all-fours, or had any 
ver}' logical basis ; it did not even follow out closely in its 
terms the prohibition theorj' ; and, so far as it did go, it could 
not be impartiall}' executed. It is easj' enough to denounce 
Major Jones, or whoever was responsible, for sparing the 
tables at Parker's, and shutting up the bars ; for stopping 
perpendicular drinking, and consenting to other kinds. There 
are some things which no police force, or even military force, 
can do. And it is a great mistake to suppose that all la\vs 
ought to be executed, or are made to bo executed. You 
might as well sa}' all guide-boards arc made to be obeyed, 
and that Avhoever persists in taking the wrong road to Feed- 
ing Hills or Mittineague ought to be mulcted in a heavy 
fine. 

More Liws are disobej'cd than obeyed. This is no reason 
for not enacting them, but a good reason for caution in 
enacting. As Coleridge was not afraid of ghosts, because 
he had seen too many of them, so men who see the making 
of a great man}- laws get to have small respect for them at 
last, — for them as laws: I mean, when not backed up b}-, 
and representative of, common sense and public opinion. 
The law should be a "terror to evil-doers" undoubtedl}' ; 
but it cannot always be a punisher of evil doers. It is 
common enough to hear it said that the prohibitory law 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 339 

ought to be impartiall}' enforced : it is a sufficient answer to 
say that it cannot be. That "blockhead of a word," as 
Napoleon called it, — the word " impossible," — is written on 
the statute as it now stands, and in the present condition of 
society. The question of regulating the sale of liquor is 
clearly one of the great questions of the next era. Earnest 
and sagacious men, whose convictions are definite on tiie 
subject, are not to be blamed for making preparations for 
the new issue, but are to be commended, rather. Such men, 
at once speculative and practical (by "practical" I mean 
familiar with public affairs, not "thinking as I do"), are 
the most useful men in the communit3\ 

GUBERNATOraAL VOTES FROM 1830 TO 1870. 

The Republican party was organized here as earl}' as 1855, 
though in that j^ear it failed to carry the State against the 
Know-Nothings. In 1856 it carried the State b}' an over- 
whelming majorit}' for Fremont ; but, perhaps on account 
of the bargains and coalitions which were made with the 
adherents of Gardner and with the Fremont American 
part}', it cannot be said to have been " fairl}' " organized 
even in that 3'ear. In 1857 Gardner still persisted in 
running as the American candidate ; and the Republicans 
made a fight against him under Banks, and gave the latter 
a plurality of 23,000, — just about the same as it gave Gov. 
Claflin in 18G9. Yet this veiy year it was in a minority of 
8,700 votes; Beach, the Democratic candidate, receiving 
31,000 votes. Not until 1859 was the Republican part}' in a 
fixed and settled majority in this State. This year it gave 
Banks 23,500 majority over the Democratic candidate, and 
about 9,000 over him and Ex-Gov. Briggs, who ran on some 
sort of an anti-board-of-education ticket, got up mainly in 
Bristol County and thereabout. This brings us to 18G0 ; and 
this year, again, there were three parties, — Douglas Demo- 
crat (35,000 votes), Bell and Everett (24,000), and Breckin- 
ridge Democrat (6,100). Gov. Andrew received 104,000, or 
39,000 majority over them all, or about 63,000 over the two 



340 "WARRINGTON:" 

Democratic candidates. Next 3'ear we had onl}' tsvo parties ,' 
and Gov. Andrew received Go, 000 votes, and a majority of 
34,000. Tliis was the smallest Republican vote since the 
part}' was " fairl}' " organized ; though, on account of" the de- 
pressed condition of the Democrats, the majority' was large. 

In l8G2we had the hitter contest with Joel Parker's party ; 
and Gov. Andrew received 79,835 votes ; and Gen. Devens, 
54,107 : majorit}-, 25,GG8. In 18G3 our majority went up to 
41,276; Gov. Andrew receiving 70,483 (less than Gov. 
Claflin in 1869), and the Democratic candidate 29,207. In 
18G4 Andrew's vote went up from 70,000 to 125,000, the 
other side having 49,000 : Republican majority, 76,000. In 
1865, Gov. Bullock's first year as a candidate, our vote went 
down from 125,000 to 70,000 again ; and still our majority 
was over 49,000, the Democratic vote being only 21,000. 
In 1866 we increased our vote to 92,000, and our majorit}- 
to 65,341 ; the Democratic vote being only slightl}" increased 
up to 26,000. Now comes 1867, when, under the liquor-law 
excitement, and in spite of the "off 3'ear," our vote went 
up from 92,000 to 98,000, and the Democratic vote jumped 
from 26,000 to 70,000, leaving our majority only 28,000. 
In 1868 Gov. Claflin received 132,121 votes; and Adams, 
63,266: Republican majority, 68,855. And now (in 1869) 
the Republican vote has gone down to about 73,000, and the 
Democratic to about 50,000. (I have not the figures at 
hand.) The Labor candidate receives 15,000 votes ; and if 
we suppose, which is but fair, I think, that 9,000 of them 
were cast b}' Republicans, we shall find the actual Republican 
majority- to be about 25,000, — larger than that of 1858 or 
1859, the same as 1862, and nearly as large as that of 
1867. And, when we remember that the vote of 1867 was 
45,000 larger than that of 1869, we shall see that our peril 
and our loss were much greater in 1867 than in the present 
year. 

I do not disagree with " Templeton " ' as to the causes of 

1 George H. Monroe. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 341 

our comparative weakness within the last three 3'ears. The 
liquor law is the great cause of the trouble ; and the reason 
why our majorit}' is substantial!}' greater than it was in 1867 
is because the Republican part}- is less entangled with the 
question of prohibition than it was in that 3"ear, and, I may 
add, because Gov. Claflin is less entangled with it than Gov. 
Bullock was. It is of no use, however, to disguise the fact, 
that, since the war ended, the Democratic party has strength- 
ened itself without i^egard to the liquor question. There 
has generally been, sa}' for the last twent}^ ^ears, a Demo- 
cratic party of about 40,000 votes, which in an emergency, 
and joining with disgruntled Republicans, could make its 
footings about 50,000. It gave McClellan this number in 
18G4, and the people's party mustered rather more in 18G2. 
Then the Irish vote has largely' increased j-ear by year. 
Johnson's defection in 18G6 gave the part}' hopes of success 
in the coming presidential election ; and, though things were 
not ripe then for a strong movement, it is no wonder that 
the next year, under Mr. Adams, they brought their vote up 
to 70,000, and our majority down to 28,000. 

[July 20, 1870.] 
REV. J. D. FULTON AND HIS ECUMENICAL COUNCIL. 

Of course you have seen and relished the full report of 
Fulton's speech at the meeting of Baptist ministers called 
to settle the question whether Rev. Mr. Murray was acting 
according to evangelical ideas in saying a good word for 
Charles Dickens ; and, as a corollary, whether Fulton and 
Dunn were justified in sending the novelist to hell, as they 
did so recently, and with such self-sufficient unction. Inci- 
dental to this question was the one, whether the novelist 
aforesaid was really undergoing the punishment appointed 
for all men who satirize the clergy and drink wine. The 
meeting did not decide this last question ; Dr. Murdock's 
suggestion, that it be left to the Almighty "with full pow- 
ers," being considered a wise one by all except Fulton, who 



342 "WARRINGTON: " 

has no idea of leaving such matters to the Almighty ; at any 
rate, without his aid in tlie shape of advice. 

At first thought, it seems sad that Dickens cannot read 
the proceedings of this meeting, cspecIaH}- Fulton's speech. 
But, after all, the "wonderful humorist knew Fulton inti- 
matel}'. As Shakspeare knew all the Dogberrys, all the Cades, 
all the Touchstones, all the Pistols, all the Fluellens, all the 
Gobbos, that had gone before or would come after him, so 
did Dickens know Fulton. The primal ass involves, includes, 
prophesies, all asses, from the creation of the world down- 
ward or upward. Dr. Murdock, Dr. Neale, Dr. Eddy, and 
the rest, though provoked, no doubt, at being put into such 
a position, must have secretly enjo3-ed the meeting, and 
especiall}' Fulton's speech. Who could help enjoying it? 
Satire pales its ineffectual fires before such a sublime realit}'. 
Do 30U know that I claim to have been the first discoverer 
of Fulton? and I flatter myself that I have brought him 
out. Nothiug in his discussions of the woman question has 
at all equalled his scintillations since Dickens died. He 
seems to be conscious tliat he has a genius for donkeyhood 
which nobody else approaches. No newspaper can afford to 
ignore Fulton. He is an institution which must hencefor- 
ward be acknowledged. 

Isn't it a little odd, by the way, thnt his domonstralion is 
so coincident in point of time with the poor old Pope's 
assumption of his infallibility? You are reminded a little 
of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, though Fulton is not a fol- 
lower of Pius the Ninth. Not he. He is an opposition pope. 
He keeps the shop over the way. He shows up the Pope 
every other week, alternating him with Dickens. He is not 
so powerful, however, as the Roman Pope. The latter sets 
all Europe at loggerheads : Fulton only sets all America 
into fits of inextinguishable laughter. Everybody was on 
the broad grin yesterday and the day before. " Ho, ho ! 
Look here, old fellow: have you seen ' Tlie Advertiser'?" 
— " What ? Oh, yes ! Fulton ! Haw, haw, haw ! ' ' One man 
stumbles against another, nearly knocking him down, and. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 343 

as he begs pardon, bursts out laughing, " Excuse me, sh* ; but 
I was thuiking of Fulton: seen the report of his speech? " 
— "Oh, j-es ! very funny! No consequence, sir. Good- 
morning ! " — " Halloo ! Come in here ! Want to show 3'ou 
something." — " What's that? Oh! I know — Fulton ! 
Good gracious ! don't you suppose I've seen that ! Ho, ho, 
ho ! " And so it went, up and down the streets. I doubt 
whether " Pickwick " itself ever made people so good-natured. 
As Dickens's death " eclipsed the gaj-ety of nations," so 
Fulton's exploits eclipsed the sun itself. Heat was forgot- 
ten, the soda-shops neglected, and men were as willing to 
wear thick clothes as thin ones. It was "all along" of 
Fulton and his ecumenical council that Boston was so good- 
natured on Tuesday and Wednesda}'. But Fulton was voted 
down. Pius Ninth is declared infallible ; but Dr. Murdock, 
speaking the solid sense of the Baptist clerg}', says, " Let us 
leave the question of Dickens and his soul to the Almighty, 
with full powers." Fort}^ to one, the council saj's Amen to 
Dr. Murdock, and Fulton goes home to write another shriek- 
ing sermon for the Tremont-Temple conventicle. You don't 
know Fulton if 3'ou suppose he is going to leave it to the 
Almighty. Not he. Tremont Temple is a co-ordinate 
branch of the divine government, in his opinion ; and Dick- 
ens will not be saved with his consent. He hopes for better 
things than that. Fulton himself is a fore-ordained and 
predestined blackguard ; and, if he is ever redeemed, the 
grace of God will have one of its greatest personal and 
historical triumphs. 

[Oct. 19.] 

JOHN QUINCT ADAMS AND THE DEMOCRATS. 

Mr. Adams's letter previous to the convention, Avritten 
in grave style, — grave as his great-grandfather's " Novan- 
glus " Essays before the Revolution; graver, according to 
my imperfect recollection of those productions, — gave the 
impression that he was anxious to withdraw from the field. 



344 "WARRINGTON:" 

It is doubtful if this is so. He informed Judge Abbott that 
he should not be a candidate, and voUniteered to aid the 
judge ; but afterward changed his mind (for good reasons, 
no doubt) , and denied that he was out of the wa}'. Mr. 
Adams is not a fit candidate for any party that makes pre- 
tensions to contest the field. To be a political leader, a 
man must at least put on a pretence of earnestness, if he be 
not reall}' in earnest. He ma}' be an office-seeker, and a 
corruptionist, read}^ to buy and sell, to be bought and sold ; 
but he must at least believe in his part}', if in nothing else. 
Mr. Adams believes in nothing. He has not even an out- 
ward show of respect for the commonest public opinion. 
The language of trifling is his natural tongue. He is a 
humorist, I admit ; but the greatest humorists have been 
earnest men, while he is earnest in nothing but mocker3% 
No one cares less than he about the " heathen Chinee ; " 3'et 
he takes up the cr}- against them as glibl}' as if he believed 
in it. Nobody cares less than he about taxes (except those 
paid by the Adams family), or the tariflT, or railroad grants, 
or the prosperity of the ship^-ards, or long sessions of the 
legislature, or any thing else talked about in his letter. 
His bluster about the lobb}' and the railroad loans is posi- 
tively funny ; and anybody' who recollects how valiantly he 
opposed the grant of a hundred thousand dollars for repair- 
ing Provincetown Harbor, and how suddenly he caved in 
after having being taken down to the Cape on a junketing 
excursion, will appreciate his talk about the veto-power. 
He veto a railroad-grant ! Well, that is a good one ! What 
if he should? Judging by " The Post," an}- " plan of plun- 
der" would receive a two-thirds vote of the Democrats in 
the legislature ; and a veto would be of no service in defend- 
ing the public treasury without Republican aid. Sessions 
dragged out till midsummer indeed ! How is Gov. Adams 
to stop the extension ? Members of his party are invariably 
the greatest obstructionists as well as the greatest corrup- 
tionists, and Adams knows it ; and he is an arrant humbug 
for pretending the contrar}'. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 345 

Eeform in the ch'il service ! This is to be eflfected b}' a 
Democratic restoration, it seems. Fancy, if 3011 can, Charles 
G. Greene,. Charles Levi Wooclbmy, James S. Whitney, 
Patrick A. Collins, J. M. Keith, A. 0. Brewster, and J. Q. 
Adams, sitting down after the election of John T. Hoffman 
to the presidenc}', and dranghting a civil-service bill ; or 
writing a letter to J. T. II., requesting him to order com- 
petitive examinations for the Boston Custom House. Does 
not satire pale its ineffectual fires here ? What in the world 
is Adams quarrelling with the Republicans for ? He sa3-s lie 
knows that " most of the wise and conservative men of the 
Republican party" are against the prohibitory law; but 
they would not sa}' so in their resolutions : so he goes for a 
part}' which makes a declaration for the purpose of catching 
votes, and which never can have the power to affect the 
question legislatively, one wa}^ or the other, O Jack, Jack ! 
wh}' didn't you carry out your first sensible intention, and 
wait ' ' two yeai's ' ' befoi'e j'ou fully made up 3'our mind on 
which side 3-ou would exercise your powerful and " effectual 
intervention in national affairs ' ' ? 

Mr. Adams was one of the Jack-at-a-pinch nominations, 
caught up in an emergenc3' in 1867 ; and, the liquor issue 
having died out, he does not now^ represent an3' thing in the 
part3\ Nothing justifies such a departure from the Demo- 
cratic traditions, except success ; and Mr, Adams, thougli he 
has run well, has not succeeded. He has a wholesome con- 
tempt for ever3-bod3', — rather too much of it, in fact ; and 
it is impossible to make a Democrat of him, though he is 
anti-Republican enough. No wonder he wants to get rid 
of the honor of a fourth campaign. Next comes T. H. 
Sweetser,.who was the candidate before Mr. Adams. Mr. 
Sweetser is a law3'er, and one of the best ; not speciall}- a 
student of politics like Mr. Adams, but capable of stud3'ing 
it. He has no more belief in human nature than Mr. 
Adams (probabl3' not so much) , but is a good deal more in 
earnest in an3' enterprise he engages in. He, too, is no 
Democrat. He was in the Chicago Convention of 1860, led 



346 " WAItlilNGTON : " 

there by his hatred of Gov. Banks, of whom there was then 
some fear. He soon, this danger over, relapsed into hunk- 
erism, Avhich is his native element. lie is aji able, con- 
temptuous, independent, fearless man ; but would be a poor 
governor on a good many accounts. 

Then there is William AVirt Warren of Brighton. lie is 
a smart young lawj-er, in good practice, and personally 
clever, but is not known widely. And Charles Levi Wood- 
bury, who is a man of the world, a reader and scholar, a 
good speaker, wlio is invariably listened to Avith interest. 
He is not, perhaps, a man of strong convictions as to 
principles (though in this I think he has the advantage of 
the other men I have named ; for he argued the Sunday 
librar}' and tlie reading and writing questions like a man 
who thoroughl}- believed what he said, and he argued them 
also with skill and ability) ; but he has tlie advantage of 
being a strict party man. He believes the Democratic 
traditions. This is ver^' mucli bettor tlian to believe in 
nothing. A party man generally has a sense of responsi- 
bility to his organization ; and his party, if national, is 
alwa3-s respectable, and represents widel}- a popular feeling 
and impulse. He is kept b}' this sense of responsibilit}' at 
his work, and makes a better executive or legislative officer 
than if he were at loose ends and floating about. If a man 
is not a great genius, and capable of constructing and lead- 
ing a party, he had better quietly' follow it, and do the best 
he can. Mr. Woodbur}' would make a respectable repre- 
sentative candidate, and not, as C'hoate said of the harness, 
a " good, sound, substantial second-hand one," either; for 
he is fresh, never having held an elective office. 



[Nov. 30.] 
STATESMEN AND POLITICIANS. 

Rev. James Freeman Clarke, in " Old and New," lays 
down with great unction the distinction between the states- 
man and politician, when, in fact, there is no such distinction. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 347 

The words are synonymous. It suits the purposes of certain 
dilettanti to attach a low meaning to politician, and a high 
one to statesman : that is all. To show the absurdity of 
Mr. Clarke's attempted distinction, it is onl}^ necessar}- to 
look at his examples of statesmen. He says a politician 
is a man who thinks of the next election, while the states- 
man thinks of the next generation. Jefferson and Hamilton, 
he thinks, were statesmen : so were Jay and John Adams. 
Yet one half the people in their day thought Jefferson a 
politician of the lowest order, and the other half thought 
no better of Hamilton ; and both these men thought as much 
of the next election as ever Stephen A. Douglas did. Nor 
do I think it can be denied that Mr. Webster was a states- 
man. No man ever took more thought than Mr. Webster 
for the next election, or less for the next generation. Charles 
Sumner was a statesman and a politician too. 

Mr. Clarke might find a distinction between the statesman 
or politician and the publicist ; but there is none, either in 
theory or practice or in history, between the two classes he 
tries to set against each other : and there is no end to the 
mischief he, and such as he, does hy attempting to fix a 
stigma upon the word "politics" and the business of man- 
aging public affairs. I believe the politicians of Massachu- 
setts are the most honest and useful men in the State, and 
that a man who attains a position of usefulness among them 
is sure to be a man of character and worth. Instead of turn- 
ing up their noses at politicians, such men had better become 
politicians tliemselves, and not leave the business of govern- 
ment to the baser sort of politicians, who take up with it 
because better men will not. Just now we are having one 
of our periodical spasms of sniffing, snuffling virtue by 
clergymen, college professors, half-naturalized English or 
Irish editors, half-graduated fools from the colleges, about 
the politicians. Now, if these new dictionary-makers, wiser 
than Worcester or Webster, would define politician and 
statesman according to their real idea, the}' would say some- 
thing like this: "A politician, for example, is a man who 



348 " WARRING TON: " 

reads ' The New- York Tribune ; ' a Btatesman, one who 
reads 'The New- York Nation.' A politician is a man wiio 
belongs to a party, holds office, seeks for it sometimes, does 
as well as he can to carry on public affairs, guides when he 
can, and drifts when he must : a statesman is a man who 
talks loftily about the corruptions of politics, keeps away 
from the elections, prophesies evil continually, reads books 
on minorit}' representation, deplores the tendenc}- to democ- 
racy, has a good deal to say about the unwashed, thinks 
there ought to be some new restriction on voting, rather 
regrets that we ever undertook an}' democratic experi- 
ments;" and so on. 

Mr. Clarke is not naturally with this sort of men ; but he 
has fallen into their canting wa^'s in the article I have 
referred to. Here is another of his brilliant definitions : 
"The politician believes in the newspaper; the statesman, 
in the people." Yet Hamilton and Ja}' and Webster 
notoriousl}' did not believe in the people. Jefferson did, 
and so was called a demagogue and a politician by the 
Federalists. I should like to know how a man can believe 
in the people, usefully, without reading the people's news- 
paper, and believing in it to the extent of studying it to find 
out what the people believe in and desire. A " statesman" 
who should confine his political reading to Benton's "De- 
bates" and "The Federalist," and Bentham and Mill and 
Bastiat, and the congressional documents, and Niles's 
"Register," and the files of "The Richmond Enquirer," 
to the neglect of the New- York and Chicago and Boston and 
Springfield newspapers, — well, he might as well confine 
himself to "The New-York Nation " and the letters of the 
Yale professors, and done with it. The i)olitician may be 
" very near-sighted ; " but better that than altogether blind. 
I have the misfortune to believe that the politicians are as 
good as the people the}' represent ; and that when the 
people rise (as the}' did in this State in 1855 and 18G7), and 
throttle the politicians, the State is rather worse off than if 
they had been let alone. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 349 

[Dec. 7.] 
MR. WILLIAM GRAY AND THE CITY ELECTION. 

Mr. William Gra}^ went to his house and his bed on Mon- 
day night evidently in a very self-satisfied condition of 
mind. He had emerged, for this time onh', from his com- 
fortable dwelling-house, in order to take a part in politics. 
He had been complimented with the presidenc}' of a citizens' 
caucus. He had met with these citizens ; and, " upon in- 
quiry," these citizens had satisfied themselves that Mr. 
Gaston was the man for their mone}'. Accordingly, the}' 
had nominated him fur mayor ; and Mr. Gray had written 
him a letter, clothed in Harvard-college English, to which 
Mr. Gaston had replied in the same polite and unexceptiona- 
ble tongue. The business of the caucus having been finished, 
Mr. Gray had been thanked for the able, impartial, and dig- 
nified manner in which he had presided ; and to this vote of 
thanks he had replied in a speech characterized by the great- 
est decorum, and sufficiently pointed to be interrupted once 
or twice b}" " applause." Mr. Gray had declared to his 
caucus, that, in his opinion, an importance«.had attached to 
it " much bej'ond the present election, or any single election 
which ever has been or ever can be held." Gracefully refer- 
ring to the fame and character of "• the old cit}' of Boston," 
Mr. Gray deprecated the approach of the day when it should 
be necessary for the Commonwealth to govern it b}' com- 
missions, as the State of New York governs the cit}' of New 
York; but he feared that day would come, "if we" (the 
caucus aforesaid) " are unfaithful to our duties." He deli- 
catel}' referred to the charge which had been made, that per- 
sons of independence and public spirit (like Mr. Gray) could 
have no influence in our primary meetings : he would not 
undertake to say whether this charge is true or not. Some 
one here aided him a little to form a judgment on the matter 
by crying out, " True, true, true ! " Self-poised, and by no 
means allowing himself to be swa3-ed from his condition of 
doubtfulness on this point, Mr. Gray proceeded, on firm 



350 " WARRINGTON: " 

ground, to say, or rather to " undertake to sa}*," that " this 
convention, formed almost b}' an accident, in consequence 
of the meeting of a few individuals of Ward P^leven at the 
St. James Hotel," had become a bod\', " which, in point of 
character and respectability, decorum, and kindliness of feel- 
ing, cannot be surpassed an3'where," " I came here a 
stranger to almost ever\' one of you," said Mr. Grav, " and 
most of you were strangers to me as I was to you ; yet, with 
different opinions, we came together with an honest purpose, — 
to select honest, competent, and disinterested men for public 
ofl3ce." And, warming up with a sense of the prodigious 
magnitude of his great mission, Mr. Gra}^ went on to say, 
that if wc could see, year after year, a convention as earnest 
as this has been, " we should have taken a step irt advance 
of an}' thing ever taken in a large city in the history of 
republics." Mr. Gray could not say much after this; and, 
after thanking the caucus for its kindness, he closed his 
speech, and went home and to bed with emotions which are 
easier conceived than described. 

This is all laughable enough to those who know that the 
Mercantile-hall movement is ciititled to no greater respect 
than the sftore of Parker-house committees, Faneuil-hall 
committees. Republican committees, and Democratic com- 
mittees, which have got together, openly or secretly, to con- 
trol city politics for the last ten 3'ears. How the Avire-pullers 
of the caucus must have laughed in their sleeves when 
Mr. Gra}^ alluded to the origin of the committee, — '* almost 
b}^ accident"! Ah! Mr. Gra}-, look into j'our Pope, and 
read, — 

"All nature is but art, unknown to thee; 
All chance, direction which thou canst not see." 

The prospect of a reform in city politics is, notwithstand- 
ing Mr. Gray's speech, very poor indeed. Mr. Gray will 
not, probably, emerge from his library again, until he deems 
his presence needful in the next tremendous crisis ; or, if he 
does, the gentleman from AVard Two or Ward Seven, the 
initial of whose surname is Mac, will have twice as much 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 351 

influence as he with the Koxbury laAvyer who wrote him the 
polite note accepting the nomination for mayor. 

PUES. ELIOT AND HARVARD COLLEGE IN 1871. 

Pres. Eliot is said to be a good deal of a reformer ; but 
he has not yet reformed the style of printing the order of 
exercises for Commencement Day. If he will abolish Prof. 
Lane, or whoever is the author of the outlandish and sym- 
bolical Latin which appears there, he will do good service, 
even to the graduates of the college, not one in ten of whom 
can tell what it means. And if a graduate trained in the 
classics is puzzled, what must be the emotions of a "lay- 
man " ! Fanc}' the feelings of the mother of Augustus Ja}^, 
as she clasps to her bosom her successful first-born, and 
finds, when he produces the programme, that he has been 
transformed into " Avgvstvs Ja}- " ! " My dear boy, how u 
have changed ! " she will sa}'. And Samuel Brearly's father 
finds his son transmogrified into " Samvel," — a parod}' on 
Mr. Weller, juii., and obliged to spell his name with a 
" we " henceforth ! Arthur Rotch, probably* st^'led " Art " 
bj-his little sisters, has become " Arthvrvs." "Art is long," 
sure enough, under such a system. Here and there, a young 
man escapes. Happj' Alexander Robertson, whose name 
apparentl}' defies this barbarizing process ! The names, how- 
ever, are coraparativel}^ easy to make out. The first page 
is a complete rebus. Go to, " Carolvm Gvilielvm" ! reform 
this with the rest of 3-our reformings ! 

These young men at Cambridge doubtless thought them- 
selves very great men ; I heard their young lady friends 
murmur "Splendid!" once in a while: but I would not 
trust one of them to carry a point in town-meeting, or 
get a delegation elected in a town-caucus. Here and there, 
a man of them will become a brilliant scholar or writer : 
but most will subside into lawyers' oflSces, to be beaten 
out of sight b}' some j'oung countryman who has studied 
human nature all his life, and the Revised Statutes two 
months ; or into pulpits, to be sneered at and criticised, 



352 "WARRINGTON: " 

and finall}' turned out to grass ; for talent goes to the 
world, rather than to the church. Fortunate are those 
who discover soon that the -world is the best pulpit and 
rostrum, and betake themselves to active life, forgetting 
their Greek and Latin, and, if necessar}-, swearing their 
wa}- into usefulness. 

The best education is life experience and work. Of 
course, if a bo}' has decided genius for any thing which can 
onl}- or best be indulged or forwarded b}' a college course, 
he ought, if possible, to tr}- that. A business education — 
not trade, as it is commonly called — is best for body and 
mind. Cultivation of frankness is necessary : nothing is so 
important as this, especially if any young person gets into 
an}' sort of difficulty. Get habits of industry, and leave the 
rest to the higher powers. 

On the whole, I think it pays very well to take a ride over 
to Cambridge on Commencement Day ; and though the col- 
lege turns out many boobies, or rather leaves them boobies 
as it finds them, it is a noble institution. We who have no 
learning see a gi-eat man}' graduates who excite contempt, and 
even pity ; many who would have been better off if their fond 
and partial parents had not been so fond and partial, but 
had sent them into a Lowell machine-shop, or into a flour- 
store on Long Wharf, or put tlieni on a horse-car as driver, 
or steam-car as brakeraan. But how much better off we 
should be with the acquirements which Harvard College could 
give ! How much better articles and letters we should write ! 
Occasionally, I find it convenient to use a Latin phrase ; 
and when I look into the back part of ray Webster or 
Worcester (as the case may be ; for I use both, and so 
am sure of " the best"), and see that I quote it correctl}' 
and properly, I feel ashamed of myself, because I feel that 
I am guilty of a false pretence, and am imposing on m}' 
readers the idea that I know something of the classics. But 
this is a world of false pretences ; and I half suspect that 
three-quarters of the graduates who were at Cambridge yes- 
terday would not venture to quote a common Latin maxim 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 353 

of ten words without doing as I do. "We all remember how 
the great Webster and the great Mann were at loggerheads 
over captaiores verboruvi, and how Prof. Felton and Prof. 
Beck mixed in the affray. 



854 " WARRING TON: " 



CHAPTER Xn. 

POLITICAL SITUATION IN 1872-1873; AND "WAEKINGTON" 
ACROAD. 

LETTER TO CHARLES SUMNER.* 

Dubuque, Io., June 24, 1872. 

My dear Senator, — I have written to j'ou a couple of 
letters, which I suppose you received. Tlie habit of obtrud- 
ing advice, or rather opinions, is one whicli I dare say I 
shall never recover from ; and I don't know when there was 
ever greater occasion for a man to say a word in good faith 
to his political and personal friend, or for a follower to give 
such advice or opinion as he may have to his political leader. 
I left Boston three weeks ago, just after your speech ap- 
peared. Let me tell j-ou what I thought and think of it. 
Its general arraignment of Grant and the administration 
seemed to me just and needful. I have not changed my 
opinion of Grant or his rule. You flattered me once by 
saying that you wondered how I, who had not seen them at 
Washington, or with any close view, had measured them so 
accurately. They have never harmed me ; but I know that 
the President is unfit, and that his rule is a bad one. I put 
no faith in the theoiy, that, if Grant is re-elected, things will 
be better. They are likely to.be worse, — intolerable for 
such men as you who are in i^ublic life, dangerous for the 
whole countiy. Yet there is public virtue enough to prevent 
anarchy or despotism, either now or four jears hence. It 
would not surprise me if the same reasons which compel men 
to support Grant now should make him a candidate again in 

1 Never before printed. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 355 

1876, if he is now successful. He is so utterly destitute of 
ajopreciation of his proper position, and of his own unfitness 
for it, that it would be the easiest thing in tlie world to con- 
tinue him in the field. How long the countrj- could stand 
him is indeed a question ; but of the final result I have no 
doubt. The public virtue will take care of that matter. 

But to finish what I have to say of your speech. Some 
parts of it seemed a little overdone; but these were not the 
most important parts. I thought that probably you laid 
stress and emphasis on certain things, which, if you had not 
had a personal grievance, j'ou would have overlooked. I do 
not think 3'our criticism on his letter to the colored people 
was quite justifiable ; nor, on the whole, do I think that 
the colored people have been, considering the difficulties of the 
situation, and the struggles of opinion in Congress and in the 
part}', neglected. Grant has — this ia what I mean — fairly 
kept pace with Congress and his part}' in the reconstruction 
policy. I believe in thoroughness, and don't think candor 
the first of virtues in a partisan, and so don't specialh* object 
to these parts of 3-our speech, except that I fancy»and believe 
they have injured its effects. There is precious little logic 
in individual men, but oceans of it in the aggregate ; and 
they are quick to see any thing which looks like unfairness 
towards a man or a part}* the}' have been in the habit of 
thinking well of. Enough of this. 

How is the public virtue to be brought to bear for a reform 
in national politics ? I cannot think it is by supporting Gree- 
ley. I have just been reading in "The Chicago Tribune" 
a sketch, by Horace AVhite, of Carl Schurz's speech at the 
Fifth-avenue Hotel conference. Of course, no man presents 
the reasons for supporting Greeley any better ; at least, the 
reasons which would be apt to affect a reluctant mind like 
mine : for I know how contemptuous an opinion Schurz must 
have of Greeley, and how strong must be his distrust of the 
result of the experiment. To divide his reasons into three 
branches, they are, First, The relief of the " governing 
class ' ' of the South from the oppressions of the administra- 



356 " WARRING TON : " 

tion. That oppression is the work of the Republican party, 
and not of Grant. It is the work of Congress, your work as 
a senator, the work of the Republican members, my work, 
the work of the Republican voters ; and althougli I, agreeing 
rather with Schurz than with you, have been against the two 
last Ku-Klux bills (and so quarrel with the party rather than 
with the President), yet, on the tvhole, I cannot say that 
the rebels have an}' grounds of complaint. No : our policy 
may have been unequal and imperfect, halting, inconsistent, 
but not oppressive to these great criminals, not unduly pro- 
tective to their old victims. If other things were right, we 
should not find fault with this. 

Second, We must seek, says Schurz, practical results ; and 
it is now too late to defeat Grant, except with Greele}-. I 
agree to this last, I fully assent to the proposition, that 
all roads from Greeley lead to Grant : but so do all roads 
from Grant lead to Greeley ; and the one proposition is as 
inconsequential as the other. We are familiar with that 
argument, and despised it long ago. I know we must seek 
practical results. The critical habit has grown upon me, 
and possibly I care less for "practical" politics (so called) 
than five years ago : but I would do almost any thing 
to bring about practical reform ; certainly would risk much 
in men and in party connections. But I see in Greeley 
a man, who, in a different direction from Grant, is just as 
unfit as he. Look at him clearly. Read his paper every day 
now, and think what he has been for thirty years, and you 
cannot imagine a more unfit person. His quarrel with Grant 
is not one of principle : there is no pretence that it is. It is 
solely a personal and custom-house quarrel : it is the quar- 
rel an insatiable office-seeker makes with one who has disap- 
pointed him and his class. For this (look at " The Tribune 
Daily ") — for this he has turned his back on every one of 
his old professions, — every one ; so that, as far as I see, 
there is no substantial difierence between his paper and any 
one of the old-line Democratic organs. What is to be pre- 
dicted of such a man? Schurz has tried to persuade himself 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 357 

that he will make a good cabinet. It is impossible. He 
will be the \}rQy of innumerable factions. Schnvz, when he 
reflects, must know it. It is running for luck, with the im- 
minent clanger that we shall be worse off than ever ; for 
Greelc}', in a word, lacks character. He has got nothing 
to build upon, — absolutely nothing. A coward in danger, 
a sentimentalist, he loses his head whenever an exigency 
arises. He was frightened after Bull Run ; frightened at 
every crisis of the war ; never — I say it aiming at accuracy 
— never leading or coming up abreast with radical opinion ; 
turning about with every breeze, and not even waiting for a 
wind or gust. Oh ! when I think of his record, I am ashamed 
that an3-bod3' should dream of giving him a vote. Public 
virtue can stand him as it can stand four yeai's more of 
Grant ; but how shall this virtue best be utilized? By inde- 
pendence of thought and action, it so seems to me. Per- 
sonal government must be rebuked and overthrown by a 
protest against hotJi these personal parties. "A plague o' 
both your houses!" Presidential fitness must be restored 
b}^ a protest against both the unfit candidates. 

Wh}', see what Schurz has come to ! What was the key- 
note of his great speech at Cincinnati? Governmental 
reform; not "Anything to beat Grant." Now it is, "Any 
thing to beat "Grant," because, without beating Grant, 
we cannot have governmental reform. A very different 
proposition. True, we cannot have reform without beating 
Grant ; nor can we without beating Greelej'. One ques- 
tion is. Which is the nearest road? and another individ- 
ual question is, AVhat is individual duty? To defeat Grant 
is a gain : to defeat Greeley is a gain. To defeat Grant is 
to rebuke present and tried unfitness and corruption : to 
defeat Greeley is to prevent untried, but equalbj certain, 
unfitness and corruption. Both events release the countrj' 
from the dominion of the present Republican regime sooner 
or later. The defeat of Greeley quite as surely releases it as 
the defeat of Grant. The defeat of Greelc}- releases the real 
reformers from the responsibility of shouldering a party and 



358 "WAIililNGTON:" 

an administration, which under such a leader, and with such 
auspices, cannot last a month; at any rate, a year. I am per- 
suaded that Greeley and Brown with their tails — Fenton, 
Blair, and so on — cannot gain the confidence of the country. 
The Republican masses, which, after all, are the best part of 
the country, would return upon it, scatter it ; and all through 
the next term we should be howling to each other, " Any 
thing to beat Greeley ; " and so ad infinitum. 

1 have treated Schurz's second and third reasons under one 
head, and have written four sheets, instead of one or two. I 
can onl}- hope that I have contributed towards the aggregate 
of opinion among your friends, which I know 3'ou arc not 
unmindful of. I shall leave here for home next week, and 
perhaps you will be in Boston as soon as I am. I see " The 
Advertiser," "Journal," and "Springfield Republican," 
and know what is going on in Massachusetts. We are to 
have very interesting times there, in various wa3's, for several 
3'ears to come. This docs not diminish my anxiety that we 
should all be able to justify ourselves as " practical " politi- 
cians, as well as reformers, for the course we ma}- take. 

Whj' will yon not take pains to save my letters, if it is 
not too late as to the others, so I may at some time reclaim 
them. I am sure I shall m^-self read them with pleasure, if 
you do not. There's for you ! 

Yours faithfullj', 

W. S. Robinson. 

SeXATOB SUJtKER. 

P.S. — Looking this over, I find I have omitted one point 
I intended to write on ; to wit, the way the Cincinnati Con- 
vention was raided on and captured by the worst men in it, — 
an omen of almost certain disaster and failure to the admin- 
istration, should one be elected under such auspices. The 
confessions of Carl Sohurz, Samuel Bowles, and others, 
after Ma}^ 1, go further with me than their present wr}'- 
faced attempts at optimism. W. S. R.^ 

1 Tliis letter waa shown to Dr. S. G. Howe, who made the follow- 
ing comment upon it: "Good medicine, but not pleasant to take," — 
S. G. II. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 359 

[Jan. 3, 1873.] 

"WARRINGTON" ON HIS FATE. — THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO 
HIS DEFEAT AS CLERK OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES. 

The newspaper which I described as the representative 
of "counting-room journalism" sa^'s that the clerk of the 
House of Representatives was, on Wednesda}", "summarily 
and disgracefully ejected." This is an admission v>hich 
" The Traveller " did not intend to make, and which is due 
to its inability to command the services, at a moment's warn- 
ing, of a man who could express himself according to his 
intentions. If I might venture to interpret the broken Eng- 
lish of the erudite and pious Crooke, who edits that paper, I 
should guess that he meant to intimate that the ejection was 
disgraceful to the person ejected, and not to the ejecting par- 
ties. Assuming, then, that there was " disgrace " somewhere, 
suppose we seek to find out where it is. It surelj* does not 
prima facie belong either to the one who seeks an ofHce, or 
who desires to retain one. 

Col. Taj-lor had surely a right to ask for the clerkship ; 
and it is nonsense to sa}' that an3'body under the canopy ever 
dreamed of censuring him for so doing, or of abusing him on 
that or any other account. Nor, as the world goes, is there 
any reason for scolding as to the means employed. I do not 
at an}' rate mean to complain, but only to desci'ibe. And 
let me sa}' in the outset, that, if what I write shall be classed 
under the general title of " sore-headism," I shall not com- 
plain or dispute. Your defeated office-holder or office-seeker 
is, of course, a " sore-head ; " and you must make allowances 
for that in considering his statements and comments. Bear 
in mindj then, this general truth in estimating whether I 
describe correctly or incorrectly the parties who organized 
this movement, or were drawn into it. In itself, it is of but 
slight consequence ; but within a few days it was made to 
bear some relation to the pending question of the senator- 
ship. So far as it bears on this matter, it probably enures, 



360 «' WAIiRINQ TON: " 

for the time being, to the beneQt of the Boutwell-Butler com- 
bination, or at least to Gov. Boutwell. Its iufluencc ou 
Butler's fortunes, should the party of the first part be elected 
to the Senate, is, however, a matter of guess-work. 

The members of the House of Representatives who signed 
the invitation to Gov. Boutwell to become a candidate for 
the Senate were not all friends of Mr. Taylor, nor are they 
all friends of Butler ; but the connection is still marked 
enough to be noticed. Messrs. Iloj't, Blake, Winslow, and 
Palmer, are, at any rate, active Butler men ; perhaps, on the 
whole, the most active Butler men in the House ; though 
Blake could not, I su[)pose, help or hinder anybod}' a great 
deal. Middlesex County still maintains its swaj' in the 
political machinery' of the Commonwealth. It is numerically 
the strongest county ; and Sulfolk, Essex, and Worcester are 
babes in intrigue in comparison with it. Wilson, Boutwell, 
Banks, Claflin, Butler, Judge Hoar, George F. Hoar, 
Williams, Gooch, the Lowell squads, the Charlestown squads, 
— all attest the supremacy of Middlesex in our politics. 
Wilson, it is now said, is committed to Boutwcll's support. 
The}' were coalitionists twenty years ago. You can learn 
something b}' studying the roll of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1853. Besides the names of all those mentioned 
there, except Judge Hoar and his brother, Mr. Claflin and 
Mr. Williams, 3'ou will find Dana, Burlingamo, Thomas 
Talbot, Charles R. Train, Josiah G. Abbott, J. B. AVinn, 
F. O. Prince, C. C. Hazewell, John Sargent, Isaac Liver- 
more, Richard Frothingham, and (to drop into the obsolete) 
Jool Parker. But Boutwell, Wilson, Butler, and Banks 
were, on the whole, the most influential men in that bod}' ; 
and to them, more than to any other four men, was due its 
splendid and ignominious failure. I ought to except Banks, 
who, as presiding ofljcer, was not responsible for its polic}'. 

It is but natural to find Wilson, Butler, and Boutwell on 
one side now, and Dawes on the other side ; for he was on 
the other side then ; though, of course, this is no sure sign. 
I suppose that G. F. Hoar, and perhaps the judge, would, on 



PEN-POliTRAITS. 361 

local and other grounds, prefer Dawes to Boutwell : so 
would Goocb, on the ground of old "Washington friendship ; 
but Gooch is too timid to be reckoned as of much service to 
one side or the other in such a contest as this. Wilson, in 
addition to the claim of old political association in favor of 
Boutwell, is afraid of Butler. lie is afraid of him for the 
same reason a hen is afraid of the hawk. lie has no dread, 
well defined, of harm to himself, or even of exposure ; but 
he believes himself to bo a sort of guardian of the Republi- 
can part}', and, through that, of the interests of the country ; 
and he would put up with an}' insolence or injury Butler 
might inflict or threaten, rather than protest against it, at 
the risk of endangering the election of a town constable 
regularl}' nominated b}' the Republican caucus of the pre- 
cinct of Squashvillc. Boutwell and Bntler are reall}' the 
only elements of the combination on one side. I stated their 
case, I believe, correctly last week ; and though the late 
fight for the clerkship had but a slight bearing on it, still it 
had a little. The late clerk has had no reason to suppose 
that the secretary of the treasury cares a farthing whether 
he is in or out. There is no reason why he should ; but, now 
that he has formed a coalition with Butler, he naturally 
S3'mpathizes with all his hates. 

The common stabber who represents the Essex District 
made up his mind long ago to be revenged upon me for the 
prominent part I took in keeping the State out of his hands 
in 1870. Ah! let me indulge in pleasing recollections, as 
Mr. AVebster once said on a great occasion. You remem- 
ber, old fellow, how we slaughtered and cut up this beast in 
August and September, 1871. It was dcfLl}' done, was it 
not? But " under pain, pleasure, under pleasure, pain lies." 
For the time being, he has got one of his rcveng?s, or thinks 
he has, which is all the same to him ; being one of tliose phi- 
losophers who confound phenomena with realities, and deem 
the verdict of a pctt}' jur}' as final and important as a cycle 
of civilization, and are not able to distinguish the one from 
the other. The mischievous moukej'-tricks which would form 



362 "WAnniNGTON:" 

the serious work of a council of charabcrraaids are just as 
serious to Butler as any thing else. 

He promised to support Mr. Dean for clerk, until he found 
that Mr. Taylor was the man, and then left Mr. Dean in the 
lurch, of course. What did he care for Dean, or, for that 
mailer, for Taylor, either? So by private correspondence, 
and b}' setting his flunkies secretl}' at work throughout the 
State, he wrought as efficiently as he could. It is needless 
to inquire how much he did toward the grand result. Nobody 
knows, nobodj' cares, so far as I am aware. Other things 
worked in harmon}' with him : for instance, thci'e was the 
"sojer" clement. Butler — 'though no soldier himself, but 
only a court-martial and proclamation general, having a hand 
in the death of no rebel except Mumford of New Orleans 
(who was paired off to the other world with Theodore Wiu- 
throp, — one the victim of Butler's cowardice, and the other 
of his blundering), and coming within smell of gunpowder 
never, except when it was embarked upon the powder-boat — 
S3'mpathizes iutenseljMvith the man who did light, particularh'' 
if he had luck enough to get home, and keep settled long 
enough to maintain a right to vote and to get chosen to 
oUicc. I suppose he would contribute liberall}' to the comfort 
of tlic poor soldier ; but it would be in the form of paying his 
poll-tax, provided he would vote early and often for him in 
the primar}' caucus. 

Then, again, there was Masoniy. It is fortunate that ray 
opinion of this institution is no after-thought, or after-expres- 
sion of a thought. Neither this organization nor that of the 
Grand Arm}' is political in an}- general way, or on a large 
scale. It is only or mainly in cases where personal pri'ler- 
ence is involved that the esprit comes in, as it doubtless 
comes in, to a degree, in the professions and trade. There 
is no help for this. I ascertained a year ago that the Masons 
were expected to aid in what Crooke blunderingly calls this 
"disgraceful" job. One gentleman blandly informed me 
that he had been urged to become a candidate for the office 
of clerk. I had heard of him as a ' • grand lecturer ; ' * possi- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 363 

blj a great-grand, a great-great-grancl, a pseudo-great- 
graud, or something of that sort. The alphabet, to one of 
these "orders," is simply an ancient invention for the pur- 
pose of lengthening out the titles of nobodies (or of some- 
bodies who want to impose upon the nobodies), and for 
whom the plain "Mister" is deemed insufBcient. Jeduthan 
Scrubbs, who began life as a cook's mate on board a down- 
East coaster, appears some day, a few years later, as " Sir 
Knight Jeduthan Scrubbs " of the De Molay or Ivanhoe en- 
campment; and "the bab3''s milk is watered," that Scrubbs 
maj^ obtain a new sword ; and Scrubbs's wife goes without 
decent clothing, that her husband ma}^ be able to wear an 
embroidered shirt-tail outside of his otherwise respectable 
habiliments. 

As I was saying, our "lecturer" had been urged to 
become a candidate for clerk. The suggestion could never 
have occurred to any one except a Mason ; nor even then, 
unless he was thinking as a Mason, and inside a lodge : so I 
could not help concluding that Masonry was in the contest. 
I do not suppose it had large influence upon the result. 
There ! — if I get j'ou into difficult}' by this, I am onlj' pay- 
ing you off ; for, as if I had not sins enough of my own to 
answer for in your paper, I have also to bear some of the 
offences of jonv other correspondents. One of them had 
spoken of a member of the last House as a "bore," or 
something of that sort (the member I refer to was not the 
bore, whose name and residence I need not here or anywhere 
specif}-). Now, I had carefully refrained from saving any 
thing of this sort. " The " bore x)ar excellence I had let 
alone ; and not bnl}' that, but all the smaller bores. O my 
friend ! if you did but know how many times I have held in 
in this wa}', you would wonder, not at my frankness, but at 
my caution and reticence. Yet it was bruited all abroad 
that I had thus abused this innocent and inoffensive person, 
who, though a bore, to be sure, was not, in an}- sense, a bad 
man, or, on the whole, a bad legislator. 

Then tliere had been for months personal solicitation and 



3G4 "WARnrXGTON: " 

button-holing, and finall}-, on the last day. a raid of a parcel 
of seal}- politicians and Jeremy Diddlcrs from the town I 
live in,^ ayIio invaded the State House in a way which would 
have justified Detective Heath in putting himself into dis- 
guise for the time, and compelled the sergeant-at-arms to 
relieve Sergeant Plunkctt from duty at the door of the coat- 
room in favor of some man with at least one arm at his dis- 
posal. I had committed various offences against these men, 
of which Icnowinrj them Avas a sufficient one. Whether I 
bolted their nominations when the}' carried on too outra- 
geously (which was a frequent occurrence) , or supported their 
fraudulent or imbecile tickets, as I too frequently did, they 
were cquall}" dissatisfied. Here I come to that superior 
organization known as the Middlesex Club, of which the 
Maiden and Somerville clique was, in this case, the "tail 
and striking muscle," as old Josiah Quincy said of Preston 
Brooks. Tliis is an organization which controls the offices 
of that great county, — sheriff, deputies, county commission- 
ers, district-attorno}', postmasters, custom-house officers, and, 
what is more important, their heirs, executors, and assigns. 
The members of Congress elect who live in that county con- 
ciliate this power, and the secretary of the treasury occa- 
sionally dines with them at Parker's. This is not the Banks 
Club, which is of older date, and had its origin as far back 
as the schism between the Know-Nothing and Anti-Know- 
Nothing Republicans, — sa}- 185G or 18o7. It is more numer- 
ous and influential than the Banks Club, which, indeed, has 
for several j-ears past been social rather than political, hav- 
ing a sprinkling of Democrats among its members. 

I might here close the list of this complication of dis- 
orders, which should, indeed, be summed up much more 
briefly ; for, except in its political relations, — to the senator- 
ship, for instance, — it is of but slight general interest. Yet 
I see that ' ' The Daily Times ' ' thinks that my free speech 
against Gen. Grant, and the nearness Avhich it is assumed that 

1 Maiden, Mass. 



PEIT-PORTRAITS. 365 

I got to the liberal movement, had something to do with 
the election of Col. Taylor. Yevy little. I only said in print 
what half onr members of Congress elect said at the dinner- 
table ; saying it much better, however, I hope, than they 
did. No. I don't believe anj' plain talk about Gen. Grant 
had much to do with the matter. That a Republican organi- 
zation which could ignorantly or willingl}' lend itself to carry 
out the revenges of Butler, or unanimously elevate Dr. Lor- 
ing to the presidency of the Senate, or boast of the Johnson- 
ized, Hanscomized Buflinton as one of its members of 
Congress elect, should find fault with me for speaking freely 
of Gen. Grant, is simply incredible. It would indeed be a 
spectacle to see Butler objecting to an3'body for depreciating 
the President. 

But I have already discussed this matter much more than 
I have any right to : and, if I have not assigned reasons 
enough for my failure to be rechosen, let me fall back on 
the old one ; to wit, the lack of a sufficient number of votes. 
I shall endeavor to make it apparent to the chief conspira- 
tor, before he is gathered to his fathers, that he has not 
made a great deal by the operation, and that the old proverb 
I have more than once quoted in connection witli him will 
still turn out to be true, — "' The Devil is always an ass." 

[Marcli 7.] 
ON RESCINDING THE RESOLUTION CENSURING MR, SUMNER. 

The hearings on the question of rescinding the iloyt-But- 
ler Grand Army General malice-resolutions in relation to 
Mr, Sumner were very interesting, both of them. The 
speeches in favor of rescinding have been prett}^ fully re- 
ported ; Mr. James Freeman Clarke's in full. It Avas the 
most effective speech of the first da}' ; and the closing quota- 
lion from Burke, which I remember was once quoted hj Mr. 
Palfre}' in an address to iiis constituents in the old da3's 
v/hen ho was condemned for expressing his antishavery 
opinions in defiance of the central clique, or, as Lowell called 
them, — 



366 " WARRING TON : " 

" The waiters on Providunce here in the city, 
Who compose wat they call a State ceutrul committy," — 

this quotation was specially effective. Ex-Gov. "Washburn 
did himself great credit by his willingness to come out, 
and his speech was an excellent one. Rev. Dr. James W. 
Thompson of Jamaica Plain, once of Salem, and Stephen C. 
Phillips's old pastor, came in to bear his lo3'al testimony 
against opposition to Sumner on such trivial and contempti- 
ble grounds as those which governed the movers in the 
matter last December ; and Gov. Claflin, in a dignified and 
manly way, took charge of the whole proceeding. 

If these men had had the opportunit}' to appear at the 
extra session, and had appreciated the danger that the legis- 
lature would pass the resolutions, the}' might have acted then, 
and saved the State the disgrace of adopting them ; but, 
bus}' as the demagogue and the mischief-maker alwajs are, 
they could not have reasonably supposed that he would have 
made his appearance at the fire-session ^ for the purpose of 
satisf3-ing his base propensities. "The people of Massa- 
chusetts ' ' indeed ! This Revere and Athol rubbish pretend- 
ing to be the people of Massachusetts! "We, the people 
of England ! " resolved the tailors of Toole}' Street ; but the 
illustration is somewhat musty. 

On the second day, Mr. Garrison appeared, and — greatly 
to the astonishment of those who had not witnessed the energy 
with which he had taken notes on Wednesday, and heard his 
expressions of dissent in conversation — made a speech in 
opposition to rescinding the resolutions. I did not hear any 
of it; but you will, no doubt, get a sufficient report of it. 
Mr. Garrison's hostility to Mr. Sumner has been very intense 
ever since the senator ventured to think that Gen. Grant was 
unfit for the presidency ; and more than once — once at least 
— it has taken the shape of a quasi-denial of Mr. Sumner's 
claim to be considered by his friends as a grand historic 
figure in the antislavery enterprise. It has always seemed 

1 Extra session of the legislature on account of the great fire. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 367 

to me stupid business, this apportioning out of the relative 
measure of fame to the A-arious eminent abolitionists now 
living. I suppose the countr}- and the cause would have got 
along without any of them. If A had not sprung up, B 
would have made his appearance ; and if not B, then C. 
Read Gen. Wilson's book, and )'ou will see that there were 
antislavery men before Garrison, or even Lundy, — as far 
ahead of these men, in point of time, as Garrison was before 
Phillips or Sumner ; and furthermore, though it may be a 
sort of treason to Massachusetts to say so, it will appear 
that New York had a great man intellectually and morally 
on the antislaver}" side at a \Qxy early da}', as wx had. It 
seems to me that the motive, conscious or unconscious, of 
Mr. Garrison's hostility to Mr. Sumner, grows out of this 
feeling of rivalry as to what shall be the verdict of history, 
and what is the estimation of contemporaries. Then Mr. 
Garrison, as it seems to me must be admitted, is so terribly 
deficient in that imaginative element which sees the relations 
of things to each other, and is able to " make allowances" 
for other men's opinions and actions and for the circum- 
stances of the times, that he is apt to be, if not unjust, at 
least very uninterestingly just. He is like a teamster, who, 
because his wheels are made to fit the axletree, and purposely 
intended to revolve, should therefore insist on refusiug to 
grease them, but whip up his oxen, " shout the frequent 
damn " to them if necessary, and make them drag the wagon 
over the mudd}' or frozen road, no matter whether they went 
round, or were straightforward hauled at a quadruple expense 
of force. " They were made to revolve, and revolve they 
shall ! Grease! — good heavens ! talk not to me of grease ! 
Suppose grease had never been invented ! " I reverence this 
sort of blind logic, in a certain wa}^ ; but it furnishes oppor- 
tunit}' for satire. In the present case, it does not seem to me 
that Mr. Garrison had an opportunity which called at all for 
the interposition of that logic and that conscientiousness 
which he possesses in so strong a degree. If he is correctly 
reported, he does not seem to have been at all strong in his 



368 "WARRINGTON:" 

convictions of the necessity or justice of a legislative con- 
demnation of Mr. Sumner, and came up rather to protest 
against indiscriminate eulogy upon the senator tlian for any 
other purpose. 

Well, what if Mr. Clarke and Dr. Thompson did overdo 
that matter a little? as I don't think they did. Personal 
loyalt}' is not so plentiful that we can afford to sneer at it. I 
heard a part of Mr. Towne's speech, which, I suppose, was 
merely stimulated b}- the fact that he felt that he was under 
censure as one who had taken part in the sorr}- business of last 
year. Iloyt also spoke : him I did not hear ; but I under- 
stand he made the astute suggestion, that the clerk of the 
House of 1872 entered the resolutions upon the Journal sur- 
rcptitioush', for the purpose of having them rescinded. If 
he had not entered them at all, you can imagine what ground 
would have been taken, and the noisj' bellowings with which 
tlie Athol representative would have denounced him for sup- 
pressing them. I understand thej- do not appear upon the 
Journal of the Senate. Let the warrior, on this last ground 
of grievance, turn his guns upon the clerk of that bod}-. 
For my own part, I should have been glad to have been 
spared the necessity of entering upon the Journal the record 
of the passage of these blundering exhibitions of malice, as 
well as the language itself; and it is one of the compensa- 
tions of loss of office, that one is not obliged at any time, or 
under any circumstances, to speak or write with tlie appear- 
ance of respect the names of men who deserve no respect. 
This is one of the compensations of life for which I am pro- 
foundl}' grateful. 

WARRINGTON ABROAD.^ 

London, March 5, 1874. 
Tliis city is so big, that the newspapers are happily exempt 
from the temptation and necessit}' of printing the innumera- 
ble small items of news which form so large a part of the 

1 In Boston Journal 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 369 

contents of an American newspaper ; and, accordinglj', the 
reader of " The Times," " News," " Telegraph," " Stand- 
ard," and so on, finds himself limited to two or three princi- 
pal topics, — just now, for example, to the Ashantee war, the 
Bengal famine, the minor appointments nnder the new min- 
istry-, the Tichborne trial, and law reform, the debate on 
which subject has been revived by some extraordinary exhi- 
bition of ' ' uppishness ' ' on the part of the inhabitants of the 
Inns of Court. 

The passengers by " The Parthia," which sailed from Bos- 
ton on the 31st of January, heard of the result of the elec- 
tions from a couple of young men, who, in some unaccountable 
wa}-, got on board before the ship arrived at Liverpool. One 
of them was cashier to some broker, I believe, and undertook 
to enjoy a vacation of twenty-four or forty-eight hours at 
sea ; but the storm, which was so violent that " The Parthia " 
was unable to put in at Queenstown, led him and his friend 
to avail themselves of the safety and shelter of the steamer, — 
perhaps when the pilot came on board. I found him a " con- 
servative," and able to give pretty good reasons for the 
defeat of Mr. Gladstone, and disposed to rejoice over it, but 
not inordinately. He spoke as if the ministry had blun- 
dered, and tired out the people, and not as if he thought lib- 
eralism a very bad thing. I should not have supposed him 
to have any prejudice against working-men, or any feeling 
that their rule or representation would prove injurious ; yet 
he spoke of the election of two M. P.'s by this class as if he 
desired to impress me with a sense that there was more or 
less danger from even so slight an innovation on the British 
Constitution as this. His theory as to the cause of the lib- 
eral disaster was as good as any I have heard. Nobody, I 
think, reall}' believes that England is any less liberal than 
it was five years ago, or that the Tories have any better 
chance of establishing a permanent re-action than X\xey had 
then. Still the liberal leaders are a good deal discouraged 
by the magnitude of the majority against them. Occasion- 
ally some old connoisseur of hunlterism (like A. H. Stevens 



370 "WARRINGTON:" 

or Jerr}' Black) writes to the leading newspapers, and talks 
about the " Tor}- " part}', and Church and State, as if he 
supposed the good old da3-s before the "bearing rein" 
was removed were to come back again ; but it is evident that 
Mr. Disraeli encourages no such general delusion. Still the 
distinction between "Whig and Tor}', liberal and conservative, 
is marked enough to make the result of the election a subject 
of regret to the progressive classes, wherever they are. 

Our friends up in Tremont Place ^ will be glad to hear that 
the friends of woman suffrage reckon up a probable gain in 
the new parliament. Mr. Disraeli is a friend of their move- 
ment ; though I guess it will not be safe to calculate that he 
will make an issue on it. Their victory in Boston, however, 
will console them for all other disasters. '^ 

No American topic seems worth considering by the Eng- 
lish papers, except Dr. Dio Lewis's crusade against the 
liquor-dealers in Ohio and elsewhere. Tliis must seem very 
comical to the English people, who, like most grave people, 
are a race of humorists ; but they take it more seriously than 
I should suppose they would. It is not likely that they 
seriously fear any successful crusade of this sort within a 
hundred years ; but the possibility of the path to the public- 
house being obstructed by groups of praying women may 
well appall them. A "permissive" bill seems all that the 
temperance people here expect. This, if I understand it, is 
about the same as " local option," which was abolished last 
winter in Massachusetts because it was the most dangerous 
enemy of the cause. The liquor-dealers, by the way, bore 
their full share in the burden of the conservative movement ; 
the Church and the gin-shops and beer-shops working har- 
moniously together. 

If you are at all acquainted with English literature, you 
can hardly fail to be interested in driving down into the 
queer lanes and alley-ways, the names of which at every 
step almost remind you of Dickens, or Thackeray, or Scott, 

1 Woman's Journal office in Boston. 

2 In getting women on the School Committee. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 371 

or Johnson, or Goldsmith, or something or other in English 
histor}', the stage, or tradition. The shops are scarcelj' less 
enticing. Cheapside, St. Panl's Churchyard, and so on. 
Regent Street, the Burlington Arcade, — this is a "nation 
of shopkeepers" indeed ; and although London is more than 
twice as large, in point of population, as the State of Massa- 
chusetts, it seems a standing m3'ster3^ how such a multitude 
of tradesmen can get a living. The wealth stored in private 
houses in the aristocratic parts of the city must be still more 
incomputable.^ 

Rome and Pabis, June 1. 
Italy is as quiet as if it had never been the arena of con- 
tending armies ; and France is rich and prosperous ; though, 
of course, the taxes must be high in both nations. Coun- 
tries recover so rapidl}' ! The battle-fields ^xe " healed and 
reconciled b}' the sweet oblivion of flowers," to quote some 
of Mr. De Quincey's rhetoric. If the peoples of Southern 
Europe are ground down by government expenses and stand- 
ing armies, they live upon little or nothing, compared with 
the people of the United States. I will not bother yo\x or 
myself about the superstition and ignorance on the one hand, 
or the Church and art-magnificence on the other, of these 
regions. No doubt, things are improving. Rome was rather 
an exceptional place. About five p.m., everj^ day, I found 
the wind intolerable. We were told to hurr}' awa}- from 
London, and not to stop long in Paris, and to reach Rome at 
least by Easter ; for it would be hot afterwards. This seemed 
reasonable ; for I had attached a tropical significance to the 
south of Europe. The upshot was, that I left mild weather 
in London the first week in March, a little in doubt whether 
I had not better put on clothes of the description sold in 
Boston for dog-days ; and returned to Paris two weeks ago 
and a little more, after encountering snow at the outlet of the 
Mont Cenis Tunnel, and wearing the same thick overcoat and 
gloves that I went out of London with. A week ago, they 

1 How Butler's mouth would water at the sight! — W. S. E. 



372 "WARRLVGTO^:" 

had heavy frosts and snow in Naples. I am more and more 
impressed with the truth of Hawthorne's remark; the sub- 
stance of which is, that trav'ellers had better go where winter 
is a seasonable institution, and provided against b}- the 
customs of the countr}'. "Winter is winter anywhere ; and a 
fire improvised in a cold room after your return from a long 
walk or ride is not a fire in any genuine sense of the word. 
I must sa}-, however, that I found no place in Italy where 
you could not get a fire ; although, to believe some people, 
Rome had seen no fires since Nero's da}-, and friction-matches 
were things as unknown as then. 

The hotels are of various descriptions, of course, but gen- 
erally good. I have not only seen good bread and good but- 
ter, and good meat and good soups, in this part of the world, 
but ver}' seldom an}- bad articles of these descriptions. The 
bread from London to Naples is excellent. The beds are as 
good ; bed and bread both being hard. I have heard of the 
flea ; but I do not deem him a frequent nuisance : and I have 
not heard of the bed-bug. Of course, you must put up, 
unless you have a good deal of money, with less and poorer 
air than in the best parts- of Boston and the neighborhood. 
And this is a prett}' serious matter. Dress also, even to the 
male species, has a significance that it does not have at home, 
— a more serious matter yet. The remonstrance over 3-our 
old glove and necktie, even if it be mute, is not inexpressive ; 
and there is a temptation to buy here and there a thing 3-ou 
do not Avant, or at least do not need, because it is only half 
as expensive as the same thing in Boston. Unless you con- 
fine the wristband of your shirt with a piece of twine, as 
when you went to school, the chances are that you came 
from home with some sort of an ornamental button or fas- 
tener ; and so, when a prettier one, at half the home-price, 
appears in a Florence or Paris window, what can you do? 
You cannot, I guess, get so good-looking a suit of clothes in 
London as in Boston, unless you employ a tailor of above the 
average ability ; and as for the London bonnet, it is univer- 
sally allowed to be hideous. I do not speak of female opin- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 373 

ion alone on this latter point. Those who think English 
women handsome must have seen them with their bonnets 
off. The Paris women, on the other hand, dress well. The 
head and foot are equall}^ well clothed, except, of course, in 
the case of those who wear shoes with heels set in the middle, 
and who come home " tired to death " in consequence. I 
do not know how far the dress-reform ma}' have gone in the 
United States ; but, if it was confined to the waist and corset, 
it was far from reaching the whole difficulty. The heel, as 
in Achilles' case, is a vulnerable point, at least in Paris. 

The sensible Parisian woman, like the American, wears a 
handsome boot. She also dresses the head with good taste, 
if at all. Great numbers of them go about simply with 
white and invariably clean caps on, and without bonnets ; 
and great numbers more, for short distances, go bareheaded. 
They have, up to middle life and beyond, a cheerful look, 
due, I suppose, to the variety and responsibility of occupa- 
tion which they have. I have not observed any intermit- 
tenc}' in this respect ; and conclude that Dr. E. II. Clarke's 
booli has not reached here, or has not been translated. I 
hope not, at any rate. It would be a pity to see this beauti- 
ful and now peaceful city barricaded by women apprehensive 
of a serious attempt to deprive them of their living for any 
considerable part of the time ; or compelling them to work 
by relays, as they sometimes have to do in English facto- 
ries under the short-hour sj-stem. Rumors of the book have 
reached here ; and sueh of the women as seem alarmed, I have 
assured, in broken French, that while it is a ver}' good medi- 
cal book, no doubt, it is a good-for-nothing educational book, 
and is about as much in the way as one b}' you or I, Mr. 
Editor, on Journalism and Judaism, or one b}' Gen. Butler 
on the Moieties and the Moralities, or one b}' anj'bod}' else 
on an}' otlier two subjects not connected by any *udy or 
knowledge in the mind of the author. 

I can give you little or no information on the politics of 
France, Italy, or England ; and yet I think, when I return 
to America, I sliall not hesitate to attempt (if required) to 



3 74 " WARRINGTON: " 

wviie a leader on either. I have for mauy years regretted 
that I had not studied European politics, so that I could 
presume to give information to the Boston or even the New- 
Yorlc public on all questions, not too minute, which habitu- 
ally arise. Having read the London papers three weeks, and 
"Galignani " and " The Swiss Times" as man}- months, I 
now see that I might years ago, by a training of one season, 
have become a valuable English editor for a first-class Ameri- 
can dail}-. Nobody, of course, will ever penetrate Spanish 
politics ; and there is a m3'ster3' about the Swiss Constitu- 
tion : but ever}' thing else, how plain ! — at least, how plain 
compared to our own affairs ! 

The London papers of, say Monda}', give us long articles 
on every French crisis or important debate of Saturday 
night ; and their articles are of ver}- mucli the same descrip- 
tion as those the}' give on English affairs. They are grave, 
with good lop.g circumlocutory preambles, and sometliing 
about former French ministries, changing Peel and Can- 
ning and Palmerston for men of corresponding rank here. 
The Frencli paper, for aught I see, discusses politics as 
freely as the English paper. Perhaps, if there were danger 
of turbulent times, this would be different. The policeman 
seems to be doing nothing more oppressive than taking 
statistics at tlie omnibus-stations, or preparing to "go for " 
the fellow who draws out a friction-match and threatens to 
smoke at the circus. 

I seldom hear of large fires liere. The one in London in 
February, which destroyed the Pantechnicon, would hardly 
have been a week's wonder in any American city of large 
size. There are plenty of books on all sides, new and 
second-hand ; and I have seen here in Paris the strongest 
indication I have anywhere seen, that our friends of New 
York, Chicago, Louisville, Springfield, and Cincinnati, are 
about to succeed in making journalism an estate of the 
realm. They build little chapels or shrines at the corners 
of the Parisian streets, and in the squares, — five-cornered 
places, about as big as a confessional in church, — for the sale 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 375 

of the sacred " Figaro " or "Temps." At the duval and 
the fixed-price restaurants, where the people get excellent 
dinners for 1 franc 75, or 2 francs 25, their delicious soups 
are made frequently of macaroni or vermicelli, cut up into 
the shape of letters of the alphabet, — A, B, C, &c. ; which 
may, for aught I know, be a governmental plan of education ; 
or, on the other hand, it ma}- be a device of the ultra-repub- 
licans, requiring a ke}', perhaps, to unlock radical intent. 
These eating-houses, by the way, are excellent in ever}' 
respect. The cafes are not to be so well spoken of. When 
here on our first visit, we had rooms and kept house in the 
Latin Quarter, Rue Jacob, — Hotel de Saxe, if you will 
know more particularly, — had our breakfast at home, and 
our dinner (at six p.m.) at one of these duvals. The dinner 
seldom cost us more than five francs (three of us) ; and 
it was as nice and perfect as could be desired, and in- 
cluded Macon wine, a very fair description, though I am no 
judge of wines, I do not feel prepared to discuss the wine 
and beer question as to the good or evil effects of either 
beverage ; but I have an idea that there are questions of 
climate, custom, stomach, brain, youth, age, vigor, debility, 
political economy, personal obstinacy, philanthropy, and 
non-interference, which must for a long time, by their fric- 
tion, centripetal and centrifugal forces, and so on, prevent 
any decisive settlement during your or my day. This is a 
topic I feel not half so much like dogmatizing about as I did 
twenty years ago. 

There are great shows of pictures in Paris now ; among 
others, a "Christ" by Bonnat, concerning which there is 
much discussion, though not much is possible as to its great 
power and merit as a work of art. It is as rationalistic a 
Christ as Mr. Weiss or any other member of the Radical 
Club could desire ; and I have an idea that some of the 
"conservative " members of that society had better buy it, 
and set it up in Mr. Sargent's or Dr. Bartol's parlor, to 
counteract the worship of Buddha, Avhich is thought to be the 
latest tendency of the " advanced thought" of Boston. 



376 ''WARRINGTON:" 

Carlsbad, Austria, June 30, 
Relativel}' to the rest of the world, I can hardly tell 3-ou 
where this place is ; for the guide-books are deficient in large 
maps. It is, however, in Bohemia, about latitude 49° or 50°, 
and in a north-easterly direction from Nuremberg ; not far, 
indeed, as to hours, from Dresden, Berlin, Prague, and the 
rest of the great German places. Carlsbad is famous as a 
watering-place. It is on both sides of the River Tcpl,^ 
which is a rapid, rocky stream, about as wide as Washington 
Street, Boston, where "The Journal " office is situated (in- 
clusive of sidewalks), crossed b}- numerous bridges, onl}' a 
few of which are for carriages. The streets are very narrow, 
and fast driving out of the question : indeed, the streets on 
the sides where the springs are situated are so crowded in 
the morning with drinkers, from six o'clock till eight, that 
caniages are then practically interdicted. The river has a 
rock}' bed ; and out of its rocks, known as Sprudelschule, the 
waters break out violentl}'. 

The oldest of these springs is called the Sprudel ; and 
this is the hottest, — 167° Fahrenheit. The others, nine or 
ten in number, are of various degrees of temperature : the 
diflTerence in them consists, they say, onl}* in this, the in- 
gredients being the same, — sulphur, salt, and carl)onate of 
soda. There are plent}- of ph3-sicians here, each one of 
whom seems to have written a little treatise ; and I believe 
the}' agree in these particulars. The chief value in a physi- 
cian would seem to be in the sagacity and experience which 
enable him to discover your malady, and whether or not 
persons similarly troubled have been relieved or cured by 
these waters, or by the regimen imposed as an accompani- 
ment. You find the allopathic and homoeopathic distinctions 
kept up ; though what they can mean, when the only medi- 
cine is a cup, more or less, of Sj^rudel or Schlossbrunn or 
Marktbrunn or Theresenbrunn, and more or less advice as 
to whether you had better take beer and butter, or abstain 
therefrom, I cannot tell. 

1 A branch of the Eger. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 377 

Carlsbad is an inexpensive place, compared with the large 
cities and towns : of course it is so compared with the fash- 
ionable watering-places of the United States, where j-ou have 
to pay the absurd American hotel-prices. The paternal 
government of Austria helps the town by sending down 
Mr. Labitzky, who is said to be a rival of Strauss, — and he 
is certainly no mean rival, — and his orchestra. They play 
from six to eight a.m. at the Sprudel spring, and every 
day at four or six p.m. at some one of the principal cafes. 
There is, however, a "general tax" and a "music-tax," 
which the government has imposed upon every traveller who 
stays more than eight da3's. He ma}" be as health}' as " the 
oldest Mason," — who died last week in Oregon, having ex- 
hausted the pleasures of the other thirty five or six States, 
— and as deaf as a post or an adder: still he must pay, — 
" couchant or levant, he must pay." I beg pardon : physi- 
cians and surgeons, with theu* families, are exempt from 
"the general tax," and- also all "indigent persons;" and 
the last-named class is exempt from the " music-tax " also. 

The weather here is as capricious as in New England. It 
was cold when we got here, ten days ago; but has been 
generally warm and pleasant since. The weather which is 
altogether lovely is always somewhere else. I find some 
people think it is in Egypt and Syria ; and one gentleman 
told me he only found it in Algeria. We have heard of the 
cold and disagreeable April and May in Boston and vicinity ; 
and so, on the whole, are not so much disposed to grumble 
over the same traits in the European spring. I observe that 
neither rain nor mud has much effect upon the water-drinker 
here. He seems to believe in it more implicitly than the 
average man who is under other descriptions of medical 
treatment. You find him turning out early, hurrying along 
to get a place which will bring him quickly to his medi- 
cine, and then patiently returning, and, even on moist and 
disagreeable mornings, taking his hour's exercise on his 
way to "The Elephant," or " Pupp's," or the "Sans 
Souci," — 



378 " WARRINGTON: " 

" Smiting the sturdy earth with many a pensive lick." 

The weather is reall}-, however, the second topic of con- 
versation in point of interest. "How do you find j'our- 
self ? how do 30ur legs serve j'ou? is this your first? is 
this 3'our second? (and so on up to your ' fourth,' making 
the new-comer think he is helping to examine charades in 
a 5'oung people's magazine,) has the doctor put you on the 
baths 3"et? " are the commonest questions. Tliere are water- 
baths and mud-baths here. A gentleman who has taken a 
mud-bath, and is enthusiastic over it, sa3-s the substance is 
about the consistenc}' of the liquid the waj'side " flag " grows 
in. The patient resembles, while undergoing the operation, 
an angle-worm of the saurian period. It is not any thing 
which sticks, however, like a vote on the Salary Bill, or a 
suspicion of connection with the Sanborn Contract, but is 
easily- got rid of, and leaves an agreeable feeling. 

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO MR. GEORGE B. MONROE, 
("TEMPLETON.") 

Carlsb^vd, Austria, July 15, 1874. 

My dear Monroe, — I have this week got hold of a file 
of "Evening Gazettes" (six or more) in May and June; 
and they have reminded me of a promise I made to send you 
a letter. I have seen "The Journal," also, from about the 
8th to the 26th of June. I have read the legislative pro- 
ceedings. After three or four da3-s' reading of the Senate's 
doings on the Tunnel Bill and the various liquor laws, I 
felt as Douglas Jorrold did when he read Browning's " Sor- 
dello." lie rushed into the street, smiting his forehead, and 
shouting, " Am I mad? am I mad? " 

Butler is apparentl3' dead : if so, it is a case of felo de se, 
for no man ever had a better chance to be governor. A 
man of Butler's real vigor of mind ought to be able to find 
in Massachusetts politics enough to l)uild up a reform party 
on, even though the people, as in his case, are averse and 
hostile to him. Have seen onl3' one number of " The Com- 
monwealth " since I left home; but the German, Italian, 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 379 

and French porters and waiters have furnished me with 
all the broken English I want, without reading Slack's 
editorials. 

The Supreme Court, it seems, is still governed by the 
opinion in the case of AYheelgrease. As near as I can make 
it out, their decision is, that analog)^ gives the School Com- 
mittee of Boston power to determine the qualifications of its 
members. The court, even if it declined to interfere, ought, 
at least, to have inserted some dictum against such usurpa- 
tion of power as the Boston School Committee has been 
guilty of. It seems to me, however, that whoever has had 
the management of these cases has made a continued mis- 
take in appealing to the court. It is a popular question, 
and, as such, must be settled in Massachusetts. It will do, 
perhaps, to ask the opinion of a court which is (1st) able, 
and (2d) which pays some due and proper regard to popu- 
lar rights in the light and under the guidance of our own 
Constitution. Our court is not "able," and apparently has 
not looked at the Declaration of Rights, — not a member 
of the court since he was appointed. Almost the only part 
of the Constitution our court has an}' right to look at is the 
part it has carefully avoided seeing. I except the clause 
which relates to the judicial salaries and tenures. 

To-morrow (Sunda}') we are off to Munich, and thence, 
after a day or two, to Ragaz in Switzerland for about two 
weeks, where people go to "complete their cure" after 
drinking the waters here. It is a place for warm baths. 

Now be sure and give my love to aU friends. 



380 "WARRINGTON- 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE SITUATION IN 1874-1875. 



That is not a scntinicntall}' amiable mind wliicli feels any 
great satisfaction — what 3011 may call a thrill of it — at the 
iiTeparable misfortune or disease of any old friend, or any 
old party organization "vvith which he ma}' have been con- 
nected. I can understand what Jerr}' Black's or Brick 
Pomeroy's emotions maj' be ; but a Republican's must be 
rather different. There are so many good fellows and old 
friends dead, or maimed for life, and left to be picked up by 
the ambulances! Here is a hand with an old friend's ring 
on one of its fingers ; (perhaps it was stolen ; but j'ou have 
seen and admired it so man}- times !) a sleeve-button which 
yon recognize as having belonged to j-our quondam fellow- 
committee-man (it was a gift from Contractor Quartz ; but 
it adorned irreproachable linen, and an arm often extended to 
give 3'ou a hearty grasp). Forgive these tears. 

JVIi*. Carpenter of Wisconsin, of the Republican senatorial 
leaders, seems about the sole survivor. INIorton, an abler 
and more dangerous man, Avent down a month ago. Let us 
hope that the Indiana election taught him that the day for 
framing constitutional amendments with the furtive and 
dangerous clause, or claw, to the effect that "Congress is 
hereb}- emijowerod to carr}- out this amendment by appropri- 
ate legislation," is now past. That word "appropriate" in 
such a place is an exceedingly bad one. Conkling — who, 
with his mind on Webster, and his mind's e3-e on the tradi- 
tional blue coat and brass buttons, got himself and his one 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 381 

speech elaborately up at Utica, and went forth to Brookl^'ii 
or New York to save the country and part}^ — is as badly 
beaten as anybod}^ else. Chandler, probabl}', is onl}- fright- 
ened ; but he, after all, is not so bad a senator or man as he 
might be. Butler — but words are vain here! Boutwell is 
as badly beaten as he. The household troops are more than 
decimated, and the military- staff is broken in pieces. The 
worst beaten man, however, does not know it. With the 
salarj'-grab in his pocket, and the parasite at his elbow, what 
does he care ? 

One of the papers speaks of this and the other campaigns 
as " war." There is a certain degree of appropriateness in 
the word ; for a defeat, especially so sweeping a defeat, 
brings about as much personal distress as oue on the field of 
actual battle. The armies numbered their tens of thousands. 
But is it not about time to stop this sort of nomenclature ? 
An election ought to be mainly a change of policies, with 
change enough of men to keep the forces together and in 
good order, and no more. If this election means any thing, 
it means a vote of total want of confidence in the wisdom 
and capacity of the administration and the Republican party 
as practical managers of the affairs of government. The 
White House and the Capitol are both pronounced against. 
Root and branch, the party is defeated. East and West, 
North and South, it is smashed. 

Now, if this were a defeat of the antislavery policy ; if it 
indicated any purpose to disregard the constitutional amend- 
ments, or to restore the government to the hands of unre- 
generate rebels, — it would be proper to talk about renewing 
the " war " in 1876. But it is mainly a declaration against 
unfaithfulness and incompetency in the practical affairs of 
government. If an}' tendenc}' or principle has been rebuked, 
it is the tendency toward the predominance of that rule 
which I heard Mr. Boutwell express not long ago : " If yoxx 
want good government, you must pay for it;" by which he 
meant simply (in the light of current events), "Trust those 
who are ' on then* make ' to give you good administration, 



382 " WABRINGTON: " 

and good in proportion to the pay, and don't ask too many 
questions." As Hosea Biglow said, — 

" Withered be the nose that pokes 
Into the public printing!" 

If any principle is pronounced against, it is that which 
has ripened into the overthrow of State governments by 
judicial decisions and cannon-shot, as in Louisiana; which 
proposes, as in Morton's Constitutional Amendment, to let 
Congress supervise the electoral votes, and, in emergencies, 
make a score of statutory- sections to can-y out the funda- 
mental law, and, if necessar}-, nullify' the popular verdict, 
and change the actual result. And both these tendencies 
or princii)les ought to be done away with. The people are 
against both, by vast majorities. Wh}- not see it and 
acknowledge it ? Wh}- allo\v the Democratic party to be the 
champion of these reforms, and insist on tryiug to put that 
part}' down b}' ba3-onets at the South, antl bad laws and 
practices at the North? There can be but one result. If 
the Republicans cany the country in 187G, it will be because 
they hold the purse and sword. The people are against it. 
The}' may be loath to trust the Democrats, and may refuse 
to do so ; but it will bo the ver}' last time. The people are 
in earnest, although they are as j^et unorganized, and grop- 
ing about for leaders and methods. There is to be an end 
to this semi-militarj' rerjime, this mixture of West Point and 
Sing Sing, — thieverj' organized, and marching to drum and 
fife. 

Almost everybod}' sees what the situation is, — great 
masses of honest men, and lovers of good government and 
correct administration, differently dressed, in sight of each 
other, and only held from fraternization and peace b}- party 
drill. Republicans are admonished to keep their eyes opened, 
because there arc lots of rebels on the other side ; and Dem- 
ocrats are liclil in readiness for a fi.tilit, because, in the last 
one, Butler was noticed to have an important command. 
There need not be an entire disarmament at once ; but a 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 383 

"peace footing " ought to be contemplated, at least. Why 
not let Massachusetts lead in this re-organization, as in 1848? 

The Republican party lias had the government nearly all 
the time since 1860 ; and will have the Executive and Senate 
two 3'ears longer, unless Grant "rats " to the other side, as 
Johnson did. It has had a hard time of it. It had to save 
the country from dismemberment, and, of course, to employ 
all the " war-powers." The pioneer and woodsman expends 
a good deal of tobacco-juice and swear' ng upon the trees he 
has to cut down, and, when he gets home, is very apt to make 
a spittoon in every corner of his house, and to damn his 
wife and bo3's on prett}' small provocation. So the " war- 
powers " became favorite reading, and sublime subjects of 
contemplation, long after we ought to have resumed the 
theory' laid down in the New-England constitutions, — that 
the militar}' shall always be kept in an exact subordination 
to the civil power. The ' ' colonel ' ' multiplied inordinately ; 
and there were more concealed bullets in the adipose parts 
than would ever have been discovered, or ever will be, if 
post-mortem examinations are universal. Of course, this 
dissipation has "told" upon the party. It is not as long- 
lived as a part3' which has had less temptation to intemper- 
ate living. The number of common drunkards who live to 
the age of ninet}'- three, and then die because the quality of 
new rum has depreciated, is small. 

No wonder the Republican party is prematurel}' old. But \ 
let the fact be recognized ; for it is a fact. Its legal and \ 
proper expenditures have been enormous ; its necessary 
attaches and holders of office largely increased in number. 
Its unwounded and uniiarmed pensioners are counted b}' tens 
of thousands ; and quack Butler, who insisted during the war 
that the educated soldier must give way to the law3'er and 
politician, was equally positive after the war that the civilian 
should give Ava}' to the corporal, the sutler, and the army con- 
tractor. The consequence of all this is, that the party has 
impaired its constitution. It is in no condition, ph3-sically 
or morally, to carry on public affairs. Why not put it, also, 



384 "WARRINGTON: " 

on the retired or pension list? A beginning has been made 
this year, to be sure. Butler himself has found his own 
Togus Springs at last. 

Dissipation, decay, premature old age, waste (perhaps 
inevitable waste) of vital powers, — these have left the party 
unable to cope with its adversar3\ Of course, the quack 
doctors, like Boutwell, Conkling, Morton, have had a good 
deal to do with it ; and the thieves crowding the ante-rooms, 
slyly fitting their false ke3-s into the locks, or carr^-ing off 
the plate and pictures, have hastened the demise of the victim. 
It made no difference that the successful party w^as more 
than suspected of being led by as great rascals as the Repub- 
lican. It was a strong-handed party, parti}' because it was 
poor and desperate. I am a man, sa5's the hired murderer 
of Banquo, 

" So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune, 
That I would set my life on any chance 
To mend it, or be rid on't." 

It seems impossible to determine, and, in the interest of 
reform, unwise to tr}' to discover, anj* one cause for the prob- 
able speedy termination of the life of the Republican party. 

Why shall not the still vigorous-bodied and vigorous- 
minded men co-operate with the vigorous-minded of their 
old opponents, and take the affairs of State in their own 
hands ? Shall the}' be prevented b}- the theory which still 
supposes that the Republican party is going to exist and be 
victorious for a number of years to come ? This is preposter- 
ous. Gen. Wilson predicted that it would live " a thousand 
years." It is as likely to live a thousand j'cars after 1873 
as it is to live three years. I have a healthy vigilance of 
feeling, I hope, against the danger of a Democratic re-action ; 
but as between Republican interpretation and misrule at 
Washington, and such a re-action, I cannot feel that there 
is an}' occasion for the most radical of abolitionists to be 
alarmed. 

The Democrats do not care whether Grant, or any other 
man of the other side, is in power. "For Banquo's issue 



FEN-PORTRAITS. 417 

ideas, though he was not veiy prominentl}^ before the public 
until after his entrance into Congress ; and in May, 1860, he 
made a speech entitled "The Republican Party a Necessity'," 
which had the old ring in it. 

In January, 18G1, however, he turned up a compromiser. 
Seward, about this time, was holding communication, through 
James E. Harvey, with the traitors of South Carolina, advis- 
ing with Jerry Black and James Buchanan, and proclaiming 
that there was no power to coerce the rebels. It is not 
important to know whether Mr. Adams fell under Mr. 
Seward's influence, or Mr. Seward under Mr. Adams's ; but 
they were in sympathy with each other. A theorizer and 
doctrinaire when out of public life, when he got into Con- 
gress he fell into the company of men, who, originally theo- 
rizers and doctrinaires like himself, had also an idea, that, 
when they become in any degree responsible for public 
affairs, they must necessarily compromise in order to be 
"practical." Sagacity, in their opinion, consists in being 
the first to offer terms, instead of being the last to accept 
them. 

A writer in " Lippincott," in giving a biography' of Mr. 
• Adams, made loud complaint that the leaders of the coalition 
kept him out, although they provided places for Boutwell, 
Sumner, Dana, Griswold, Hallett, and so on. The reason 
why they did not provide a place for Mr. Adams was that 
Quincy was a coalition town, and these other men resided 
in Wliig towns. 

The story that the Free-Soil party and the death of Whig- 
ger}- grew out of a quarrel beginning as far back as 1841, 
and that it culminated in a consultation between Conscience 
Whigs like Mr. Adams, Mr. Sumner, Mr. Palfrey, Mr. Wil- 
son, Mr. E. R. Hoar, Mr. S. C. Phillips, and others, with 
J. G. Whittier, Wendell Phillips, Mr. Garrison, and John 
Pierpont, could hardly have originated with Mr. Adams. 
This must refer to what was called the "anti-Texas move- 
ment," which was strictly non-political, or Mr. Garrison and 
Mr. Phillips would never have had any thing to do with it, as 



418 " WARRINGTON: " 

they never had any thing to do with the Free-Soil movement. 
This nnti - Texas movement was a movement for public 
meetings and petitions, and nothing more ; and its editorial 
wiiters were Elizur Wright and William Henr}' Channing 
mainl}'. Jlr. Wright edited its newspaper, which was called 
" The Chainbreaker." It lasted till Texas was annexed, and 
had no further immediate influence on politics. " This was 
the death of the Whig party," says "The Nation," igno- 
rantly following this ignorant writer in " Lippincott." Why, 
Mr. Webster was almost at the head of this " Conscience" 
Whig movement, and wrote, with Judge Allen, its address, 
which was adopted by a Faneuil-hall meeting ; and it was 
not until after the Mexican war brolce out, and Mr. AVinthrop 
went in for the " countr}' however bounded," and Gen. 
Taylor began to be thought an available candidate for Presi- 
dent, that tlie terms "Conscience Wliigs " and "Cotton 
Whigs" began to be heard. Judge Iloar, who was in the 
State Senate in 1846, first made use of these terms in debate 
there. 

The parallel this writer draws between Gen. Wilson and 
Mr. Adams is true enougli on one side of it. The writer 
says Mr. Adams had great faith in principles, and not so 
much in expedients. The truth is, that, while Gen. Wilson 
is an expedientist, Mr. Adams is no less so. I have heard 
him suggest expedients by the hour together. He was 
always of a diplomatic turn of mind, and of course fitted 
for what goes by the name of statesmanship, after the old- 
fashioned pattern ; but the difference between him and Mr. 
Sumner, for instance, or Judge Allen, in the way of frank- 
ness and directness, was world-wide. The Adamses are an 
independent race of men, and that is a very great point in 
their favor ; but none of them was ever 3-et hanged for his 
frankness, or a disposition to do away with the arts of diplo- 
macy, even in the minutice of local politics. Mr. C. F. 
Adams, sen., got to Congress about the time the war broke 
out ; and his career there strikingly illustrates liis diplo- 
matic and expedientist turn of mind. He was with Seward 



PEW-PORTRAITS. 419 

throughout. His principal speech was a disgraceful attempt 
to bridge over the difficulty by a compromise ; and his name 
is identified with an attempt to amend the Constitution 
in the interest of strengthening slavery for the purpose of 
preventing the war, which original thinliers and sound mor- 
alists knew could not be prevented by anj^ process of this 
sort. 

In his 3'ounger days, Mr. Adams was a bold man. No 
man, from 1840 to the downfall of the era of the Whig party 
in Massachusetts, was more fearless or more able than he on 
the antislavery side. No man, it seemed to me, had less 
regard for the social and political environments of Boston and 
Massachusetts Whiggism. His hates and contempts for the 
cottonocracy and the doughfaces were salutar^^ and refresh- 
ing. His speeches and reports and newspaper-articles were 
of the most downright character. He was not conservative 
enough, or practising law3-er enough, to be bound at all, 
like some other Free-Soilers, by judicial decisions or old- 
fashioned constitutional theories. He was never found among 
those antislavery men who thought, that, if the Fugitive-slave 
Law was not to be obeyed, it at least ought not to be re- 
sisted. He gloried in the "Jerry rescue" at Syracuse, 
and in all other rescues of fugitive slaves. The indomitable 
spirit of his father was in him always. 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

John Quincy, Democrat as he is, seems to me the best 
inheritor of the Adams qualities ; lacking some, because he 
was young during the thick of the antislavery Avar, but 
making up b}' being more a " man of the world " than most 
of bis race. He is independent, like his ancestors, and as 
honest, I dare sa}', as they were or are. There is, I am 
Sony to sa}-, in this connection, nothing in the blood or 
histor}- of the Adams famil}' to inspire confidence in their 
superior honestj' over the rest of the human race. 

The other sons, instead of being, as their father was at 
theu" age, bold and downright, are politically timid ; and Mr. 



420 ''WARRINGTON':" 

Heury has altogether too much of the English and diplomatic 
and supercilious character Avhich belongs to "The New- 
York Nation ' ' school to allow him to become a useful pub- 
lic man. These men are independent students of political 
affairs : they think for themselves. There is some of the 
cant which goes b^' the name of "high tone" about them; 
but this comes of too much reading of "The New-York 
Nation," the organ of " tone." J. Q. has not much of this, 
however ; and the younger brothers will get rid of it by and 
by. I apprehend that John Quincy's experience in his office 
of trial-justice, in the Quinc}' caucuses, and in the councils 
of the Democratic party, has banished "high tone" pretty 
nearl}' from his mind. 

I presume the great-grandfather and the grandfather, in 
their youth, had some of the demagogue element, but not 
much. Charles Francis never, apparently, had any of it ; 
but this great-grandson blooms out richly. He is a young 
man of fair talents, but absolutely without convictions upon 
an}' subject whatever. His first splurge, in the legislature 
of 18GlJ, was an attack upon Judge Lord and District- 
Attorney Abbott of Essex County, on account of their 
supposed partisanship in prosecuting certain over-zealous 
Republicans who had tarred and feathered a Swampscott 
Copperhead. He brought in an order, instructing the 
attorney-general to take charge of the cases ; and the result 
■was that they were quashed, or in some other wa}' discon- 
tinued. This proceeding greatl}' shocked the conservatives, 
especiall}' the conservative lawyers ; but Adams never af- 
fected to have any thing but contempt for them and their 
opinions on this subject. B3' and b}- he took a lurch to the 
other side. Resolutions on national affairs came up ; and he 
alternateh" fought and dodged these, appearing one time as 
the zealous friend of Gen. "Wilson, who at that period was 
occupying a "conservative" position. When fall came, he 
went, with John L. Swift and the rest, into Johnsonism, 
presided at one of the State conventions, ran for the legisla- 
ture and got beaten, and was then quiet until he turned up 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 421 

as the candidate of the P. L. L.i branch of the Copperhead 
part3^ 

His father and grandfather were deadly enemies of all 
secret societies, and never specially advocated the interests 
of the liquor-dealers. "Jack" went in all over, like the 
man who blac ed himself from head to foot when he under- 
took to play Othello. I dare sa}' he treats the whole affair 
as a joke ; for he is considerable of a humorist. His letter 
will not bear ver}' close analyzation. He hints that he 
entertains some "strong opinions" upon questions which 
the Democratic resolutions do not touch. He avows his 
admiration for Jefferson's theories in terms which indicate 
that he believes in them. No part}- can succeed which 
adopts the contrary theory. 

It was said at the Virginia election that some of the negro 
voters in Virginia were turned away from the polls because 
they had forgotten the names they were registered b}'. This 
is not uncommon. A young man named John Quincy Adams, 
living out here in Quincy, has forgotten Ids name, though it 
is quite an illustrious one, and would seem to be difficult to 
forget. These negroes have not forgotten their part}- name. 
The}' are not apt at spelling, and would probably tell you that 
" c-o-n-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-v-e " spells rebel, and " r-a-d-i-c-a-1 " 
spells loyal; and they do not get far out of the way. It is 
melanchol}', no doubt, that Jack and Peter have forgotten their 
names ; but the blame parti}- rests on their former owners, 
who never gave names to half of them. The mischief is not 
irreparable : they will learn fast enough. Meanwhile, let 
radicals, who are half disposed to vote for Copperhead can- 
didates in Massachusetts for the sake of rebuking somebod}' 
or other, consider whether their memorj- of their own names 
is not getting a little defective. The capacity of the whole 
people for being governed as well as for governing must 
be acknowledged. Some whim prevents John Quincy from 
seeing the truth of the woman question ; but he will by and 
by be logical even on that. 

1 A secret free-liquor party. 



422 " WAIiRIXG TON: » 

JAMES C. AYER. 
OX ni3 NOMIXATIOX, IN 1874, TO COXGRESS. 

Dr. A^er has at last purchased a nomination in the Lowell 

and Lawrence District. The onl}' redeeming feature in this 
case is that Aver probably has no idea that he has done any 
thing contrarj- to good morals or common decenc}'. If he 
ever heard of Robert Walpole, the only thing he ever heard of 
him was his celebrated saying, that " all those men have their 
price." This nomination is so disgusting, that it seems 
impossible that it should be followed by an election. Mr. 
Tarbox, his opponent, is, on the stump, a strong partisan, 
but a ver}- honest man, who in the legislature always acts 
with less regard to part}' than men who appear less stiff in 
their partisanship. It was said two jears ago, that a large 
part of Aj'er's money, used for electioneering-purposes, 
forgot to come out of the pockets of the disbursing agents. 
It was " high jinks " for a long time by the lobb3-ists, who 
probably thought they would '• save " the doctor for another 
trial. They may conclude that they will " save him " again 
for 1876. Such a man is by no means to be thrown away ; 
and the}' know full well, that, if he is elected, there will be 
no more monc}' for them. A cynic or a satirist might justify 
this nomination on militar}- grounds. 

When the Pemberton Mill fell, Mr. Frank Watson, of one 
of the Lawrence papers, wrote an account of the event, 
which, I am informed, Aj^er got reprinted on one of his 
advertising sheets, in company with a proslaver}' speech or 
address purporting to be by himself, and with which he 
flooded the Southern country, sparing neither age, sex, nor 
condition. He probably slew more rebels, real or incipient, 
in this campaign, than Gen. Grant in all of his. When God 
lets loose a pill-maker on this planet, then look out ! It is 
really a very small thing to elect such a man to Congress. 
The wonder is that he was not chosen before. If he had 
been made a " colonel," he would have got there eight or 
ten 3'ears ago. I suppose the real trouble has been the iudis- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 423 

criminate character of his slaughterings. For every Southern 
stomach disarranged, a Northern kidney has been '' devilled." 
However, time has finally set all this aright. If Ayer is 
successful, the quack epoch may be fairly said to be inaugu- 
rated. If Grant is choked off from his third term, it Tvill be 
hy an A3'er "-movement." We are, speaking geologically, in 
the bottle strata of our history. Our chronology will hence- 
forth contain such items as these: "In 1860, Ayer's ped- 
dlers first entered Scandinavia ; in 1865, a deluge of cherry 
pectoral flooded Japan ; 1866, Cathay captured ; 1867, the 
study of Ayer's Almanac made compulsory in Australia." 
Histor}^, geography, mathematics, Kosmos itself, is to be 
rewritten in the new light thrown upon it by the Lowell 
congressman, whose statue will, four hundred j'ears hence, 
be found in cities buried volcanicall}', and whose autographs 
and recipes on the obelisks of interior Africa 'will puzzle the 
explorers of that era. 

FRANCIS W. BIllD IN 1870. 

Mr. Bird has qualities which make him, on the whole, 
about as strong a politician as any man in the Common- 
wealth ; and of his faithfulness it is unnecessary to speak. 
He combines, better than an}^ other man, wise political fore- 
sight and practical Avisdom of organization. His influence 
upon politicians and public men has, I am confident, been 
greater than that of an}' man among us. Mr. Bird is a 
thorough believer in William Leggett's motto, that "the 
world is governed too much." He is a free-trader and an 
anti-restrictionist in most things, and one of the shrewdest 
politicians in a party which is not famous for shrewd politi- 
cians. Few men, if an}-, in Massachusetts, have so many 
mental resources for a fight of any kind as Francis W. Bird. 

SILVER-WEDDING ADDRESS TO HON. F. AV. BIRD. WRITTEN 

BY "WARRINGTON" IN 1868. 

Dear and honored Friend, — In congratulating 30U. and 
Mrs. Bird upon the return of this anniversary of your mar- 



424 ''WARRINGTON:" 

riage, — upon j'our silver wedding, — we cannot let the op- 
poi'tunit}- pass of expressing to 3'ou personally', and bj' some 
substantial token, our warm affection for you, and our pro- 
found admiration for those qualities of heart and mind which 
have made j'ou not only the delight of 3-our intimate friends, 
but a most useful, and we might almost sa}' indispensable, 
member of our social and political body. 

Most of us have knoAvn 3'ou long ; all of us long enough 
to appreciate those strong personal and public virtues which 
have enabled j-ou to wield, socially and politicall}-, a power 
in Massachusetts and national politics superior to that held 
b}' an}' man among us who has not been in the exercise of 
high public functions. You have illustrated the fact, that an 
earnest, indefatigable, independent man, by the power of his 
will, the vigor of his brain, and the magnetism of his friend- 
ship, may influence to a verj' large degree the action of 
men, who, being more ambitious of personal distinction, have 
attained much higher public station. For twenty years past, 
you have done more than anj' other man to hold together, to 
concentrate, to inspire, the reformatory' public sentiment of 
this Commonwealth, and to lead it on to victor}'. Your 
counsel lias been sought by governors and senators, and sel- 
dom disregarded except to their loss ; while to the humbler 
members of the party of progress you have been an invalua- 
ble guide, philosopher, and friend. AVe know perfectly well, 
that, at least up to a very recent period, you have been one 
of the best-abused men in the community. Your habit of 
denying theories which were supposed to be well established, 
of giving hospitality to unpopular doctrines, of exposing 
prevailing fallacies, and of deriding the omnipresent and 
innumerable humbugs of the day, have made your name a 
bugbear to the ignorant. But you have outlived all this. 
You have beaten down, by sheer force of character, all 
opposition ; and now, hard upon sixty years of age as you 
are, }ou are as young as the youngest, and more useful than 
the most useful, man among us. 

We honor j'ou for your public vii'tues, and for your private 



PEN-PORTRAITS. '423 

qualities we hold you. in the wannest affection. Yours has 
not been " a fugitive and cloistered virtue," nor has radi- 
calism made 3'ou an ascetic. Good-fellowship has been in 
you most admirabl}^ joined to steadfastness of purpose, and 
earnestness of principle ; and, although 3'ou have liberally 
scattered, we rejoice to see ever}* where about us, in doors 
and out, that you have as liberally increased. We rejoice in 
3'our worldly prosperity ; we congratulate yon on all the 
happy circumstances of your lot, — on the love of wife and 
children, the loyalty of friends, the respect of all men who 
know 3'ou, and whose respect is valuable ; and we ask you 
to accept of this gift^ as a token of our love, to be kept as 
a memorial of this occasion, and handed down to 3'our pos- 
terity as an heir-loom, to tell your children and your chil- 
dren's children of that high degree of appreciation and love 
with which " Frank Bird " was held b}' all who knew him. 

THE BIRD CLUB IN 1800. 

You must know, now, that there are two sets of dinner- 
eaters at Parker's every Saturday. The radicals attend 
"Bird's dinners," and the auti-radicals the other dinners, 
which have no distinguishing name. This line of distinction 
is the best I can draw ; but it does not, after all, tell the 
exact truth. The prevailing tone of the Bird dinner is anti- 
Banks and pro-Seward ; 3'et I know some strong friends of 
the governor ^ who attend them, and others who do not assent 
to the expressions of hostility to the governor v,hich are 
frequeutl3' heard there. On the other hand, several cordial 
haters of his Excellenc3', and some radicals of an intense 
character, frequent the other table. When I sa3' that a sub- 
scription-paper in aid of an3- radical and ultra autislaveiy 
movement would be prett3- certain to be carried to Mr. Bird's 
party first, and would obtain a more cordial reception there, 
if not more mone3', than at the other place, I perhaps best 
express the ditference between the two parties. The gov- 

1 A silver service. 2 ;isf, p_ Banks. 



426 "WARRINGTON:" 

ernor frequently attends the anti-radical dinner. Senator 
Wilson, who is cosmopolitan in his tastes, visits both, but, I 
think, prefei's the radical set. John A. Andrew is a regular 
attendant upon Mr. Bird's party. 

[From Diary of Feb. 27, 1865.] 

Deae Sir, — Saturday next will be March 4, — luaguratlon Day. 
We should be happy to see you, with such friends as you think would 
enjoy the gathering, at Young's Hotel, at half-after two o'clock. 
Yours truly, 

F. W. BiBD. 

Tickets, two dollars, paid to the servant on entering the hall. 

About thirty of us were present, — Dr. Estes Howe at the 
head of the table, Gov. Andrew on the right. Among 
others present were F. W. Bird, Gen. Oliver (State Treas- 
urer), two colonels, Adin Thayer, William Stowe, Charles 
W. Story, Edward L. Pierce, Coffin ("Carleton" of "The 
Journal"), William L. Burt, J. M. Day, Charles W. Slack, 
S. R. Urbino, Elizur Wright, James M. Shute, &c. We con- 
gratulated each other on Sumner's resistance to the Louisiana 
Bill, and its success. Bird showed me a letter from Sumner, 
in which he says it is whispered that the bill and the propo- 
sition to make a bust of Taney maj* be hitched to the Appro- 
priation Bill ; and he significantly adds, " If that is done, the 
Appropriation Bill will not pass." He told the President, 
"Mr. President, this bill ought not to pass, and it shall not 
pass." 

Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton dined at Young's with Mr. 
Bird and his club once in 18G8. I don't know whether there 
is any thing very extraordinar}' in this ; at any rate, there 
ought not to be. Women are very interesting people for 
men to dine or breakfast with. I do not attach any particu- 
lar significance to Mrs. Stanton's presence at the dinner at 
Young's, and am not sure even that it indicates any new 
light on the question of woman's suffrage ; but I am sure 
that the company' of intelligent ladies is the most pleasant 
company intelligent men can have, and vice versa. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 427 

I have never yet seen or heard of any Boston dub or 
society so powerful hi its influence (taking its history for 
twenty or twenty-five years together) as the Bird Club. 
And this is not even a " club." It is not a secret order, or 
an open order, or order of any sort. It never had an officer, 
or a record, or a treasury, or a committee, or a member- 
ship, more than custom, not very strict, gave it. 

ANSON BURLING AME. 

The first time I saw "Massa Ansongame " (as the colored 
man called him, in his hurried ejaculations of joy over his 
election at the time Mr. Appleton came so near defeating 
him) was in 1848. He was in his office in the old State- 
house building, — an office in which he pretended to practise 
law, but in which the clients he met were mostly the young 
and enthusiastic Free-Soilers of that day. It is just twenty 
years since E. R. Hoar and others sent out that queer circu- 
lar summoning the anti-Taylor men to Worcester to organ- 
ize. I mention Judge Hoar's name because he was the 
author of the circular. We got together under that call to 
oppose Taylor, because he was "not a Whig." I wrote 
many a column in " The Lowell Courier " before the nomi- 
nation, and in "The Boston Whig" after it, to prove that 
Taylor was no Whig, and therefore that it was no part of the 
duty of a Whig to support him. After the nomination of 
Van Buren, if I remember rightly, less emphasis was placed 
upon that argument ; and it would have been much more 
candid at the outset to acknowledge that our purpose was to 
break up the party which had shown itself incompetent to 
deal with the living questions of the day. Burlingame was 
the favorite young orator of the party ; while S. C. Phillips, 
Charles Allen, Henry Wilson, and C. F. Adams, did the 
heavy work. Sumner was more sought after than all the 
others, attaining to such popularity among the rank and file, 
that they insisted on his nomination for the Senate. The 
coalition only two or three years after defeated the Whigs, 
and took the State out of their hands. 



428 " WARRING TON: " 

Anson got into the Senate from Middlesex, and gave 
offence to some of his Free-Soil constituents — indeed, to 
nearl}' all of them — b}' opposing the prohibitoiy liquor law. 
In 1853 he made liis appearance as a carpet-bagger from 
Northborough in the Constitutional Convention. Ilallett 
carried his bag to Gill, Boutwell to Berlin, Sumner to 
Marshfield, Dana to Manchester, Griswold to Erving, Alvord 
to Montague ; and so on. I cannot say that carpet-bagging 
in this case was a success. If these men had all been kept 
at home, we should probabl}' have had a better constitution, 
or, at an}- rate, one less likely to meet with opposition. 

Some of us used to laugh at his speeches ; but they were 
wonderfully effective to the ear ; and no man was so popular 
in Faneuil Hall or in the countr}' towns as he, except 
Sumner, who was infinitely stronger, and verj' eloquent too, 
twenty years ago. Burlingame made no great headwa}- in 
the Senate or in the Constitutional Convention. When the 
coalition went down, in 1853, Wilson, Banks, Burlingame, 
and a lot of others who had no visible means of support 
except by politics, were almost in despair. The temptation 
to take up Know-Xotliingism Avas too strong for them ; and, 
after providing for Gardner b}' making him governor. Banks 
and Burlingame took a couple of the congressional seats, and 
Wilson the senatorship, dividing the spoils with such rubbish 
as I need not name. Wilson's activit}' saved him ; Banks's 
imposing voice and manner persuaded the people that he was 
indispensable ; and Burlingame went in on his luck. John 
L. Swift used to sa}', "The dillcrence between Burlingame 
and Wilson is that Burlingame never gets up, and Wilson 
never goes to bed ; " and so our 3'oung orator went to Con- 
gress from a tough and dillicult district, and kept there three 
successive terms. 

It seemed that luck failed him in 18G0 ; but he was de- 
feated onl}' to become minister to China, and then ambas- 
sador to the world : and so, instead of having Judge Russell 
to deliver his eulogy, and a lot of his old political advocates 
for his pall-bearers, he has Dr. Peabody and Dr. Briggs and 



FEN-POETRAITS. *29 

Jlr. Wmthrop, two of whom never knew him, and the thM 
of whom battel him with the utmost cordiality. Such is the 
sad penalty of greatness. But we shall all remember Bur- 
t~L tho'roughly good fellow, a man who did yeoman 
enice in the good cause, and. after all, a man of - d^- 
matic skill. Few men did so good service on the stunip , 
C I know of no member of Congress from this State, who, 
amidst temptations to swerve him from the antislavery path 
« t uer than he, while many of them have fallen far shoi- 
It him He was never found wanting when the vote came , 
and though I think we have always had half a dozen 
better speakers in this State than Buriingame, yet h. 
speeches were always full of the right sp.nt. The old anti- 
slavery men and Free-Soilers are fast dropping away John 
E Manlcy, the fast friend, confidant, and stay of Theodore 
Parker, has died ; Dr. Swan, candid.ate for gm-enior in 18o7 
of tto e Eepiiblicans who were too "straight" for Banks, 
t To .one ; and so is William Walker of Pittsfield the 
Lesrand be^t man in Berkshire, without fear and without 

reproa- . George s. bout well. 

B G. Northrop, who was Boutwell's assistant in the office 
of the Board of Education, has written an article in The 
I Cendent," the first paragraph of which resemb es he 
sonorous style of Johnson. "Among the sons of to 1, 
a : Korthrop, " are many minds gifted by -'-;3-et^- 
SDirited by their hard lot and meagre opportumties. With 
he tendency to despondency, they need encomagement. 
To u h mind's the story of those who have risen from hum- 
We ifeto positions of influence and usefulness may give a 
healthful stimulus, without awakening visionary aspirations 
Such, in my judgment, is the history of George S. Bout- 

"t doubt whether Mr. Ballon or Col. Wright could find 
any thin, better than this, if they should turn bottom upwaus 
a seoncf barrel of old editorials. I have seen nothing finer 
since I read the opening chapter of " Kasselas : Listen 



430 " WAIiniXG TOX: " 

to the story of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia." The 
beaut}- of this is, that it is written for the " ^-outhful read- 
ers " of " The Independent." " My duties," saj-s North- 
rop, "are much with the young, as well as for the young. 
For twent}' j-ears it has been my privilege to address, on an 
average, over thirt}' thousand children annuall}-. I long ago 
learned that ^outh need inspiration, even more than instruc- 
tion ; " and so on. " My duties," on the other hand, are 
much with the middle-aged ; and for the benefit of old birds, 
who arc not caught with chaflT, let me reconstruct some por- 
tions of this biographer's account of the secretary, with such 
aid as my own memor}' and mj- own sources of information 
— much better, b}' the waj-, than Mr. Northrop's — have 
given me ; and, as I am confident (as I have been all 
along) that the secretary of the treasury' will be Wilson's 
successor, this -may help to make up the inevitable chapter 
of biography which all enterprising newspapers now feel 
bound to print when a distinguished man dies, or is elected 
to oflSce. 

Mr. Boutwell was born in the town of Brookline, Mass., 
in Januar}-, 1818, His father was Mr. Sewell Boutwell, 
who represented Lunenburg in the Constitutional Convention 
in 1853 ; and George was in a store in Lunenburg from the 
age of thirteen to that of seventeen. This brings him to 
the 3'ear 1835, when he entered a store in Groton ; and, as 
clerk and partner, he staid there many years. That he im- 
proved his time and opportunities there we need not doubt. 
His privations do not seem to have been any thing so great 
as those of Henry "Wilson, driven by stress of absolute 
poverty from Farmington to Xatick ; but otherwise the story 
is not unlike that of Wilson, and it is that of hundreds of 
thousands of other bo3-s and young men just as good as 
either of them. In " schooling " he must have had superior 
advantages to those enjoyed by Wilson ; for he studied Latin 
" under Dr. A. B. Bancroft," whom he appointed pliysician 
to the Chelsea Marine Hospital four or five 3-cars ago, thus 
showing his gratitude, although increasing the bills of mor- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. ^Sl 

talitv of that institution, which had been previously well 
managed bv Dr. J. W. Graves of Lowell. I mean his gratx- 
tude to bJth doctors; for, while Bancroft had taugh the 
secretary Latin, Graves had been a most faithful friend and 
supporter in politics. Probably, in a doubtful case of this 
nature Boutwell felt under necessity of giving the place to 
the one who was likely to carry out his economical system 
by discouraging the introduction of new patients pro rata 
^•ith the increase of the death-rate before mentioned. 

He was a politician early, being actively for Van Buren in 
1840 I find, by referring to Butler' s ' ' History of Groton, 
that that town gave a hundred and eighty-five Whig and a 
hundred and seventy-three Democratic votes in that year. 
The year before, however, it gave a hundred and ninety- 
eiaht Democratic and only a hundred and twenty-two Whig 
vo'tes • and as far back as 1835, when Boutwell made his 
appearance in Groton, the vote was a hundred and thirty 
Whin- and sixty-eight Democratic. This confirms the old 
accounts I used to hear of Groton politics from such men as 
Jack Graves (the butcher), John Boynton, Jokn C. Park, 
and others, that Boutwell had gradually organized the Demo- 
cratic party, which was, when he went there, scattered in 
the outskirts, -those groggy Alsatias, of which at that 
time Groton had its full share, -and had brought them 
too-ether under his skilful leadership, and half the years, at 
least, successfully contested the field with the aristocratic old 
set who had ruled it so long. 

In 1842-44, 1847-50, he was in the House of Representa- 
tives Here he got that practice in debate which is his best 
talent "He has trained himself to think on his legs." 
There have been in our legislature but very few better de- 
baters Rantoul must have been his superior; for, with 
equal readiness "on his legs," he had a much finer mind, 
and much greater fertility of illustration. Seven years in 
the House of Representatives, in perpetual contest with 
such men as the Whigs used to send there, was a better 
school for a young politician than a man is often lucky 



432 "WARRINGTON:" 

enough to get ; and it is no gi-eat wonder, that, when 1850 
came, he was, on the whole, the most promising candi- 
date of his party for governor. This was the time of all 
others, also, for a rising man. Boutwell had never been 
aught but an old-line Democrat, — a thorough part}' hack, 
flinching not at Texas annexation, nor at the denial of the 
right of petition, but, of course, keeping his eyes open to the 
advance of that part}', which, in 1839, cast 307 votes (de- 
nominated scattering) ; in 1840, cast 1,081 for Mr. George 
"VY. Johnson; in 1841, cast 3,488 for Mr. Lucius Boltwood ; 
in 1842, cast 6,382 for Mr. Samuel E. Sewall ; and so on up 
to 1849, when it had advanced Mr. Scwall's vote to 9,193, 
and which, the next year, had nominated Stephen C. Phil- 
lips, and given to him 36,000 votes. This last vote must 
have admonished Boutwell that there was a force in politics 
stronger than the old Mortonized-Sam.-C.-Allen-Whitmarsh- 
and-Rantoul Democracy. It did not make him a Free- 
Soiler ; but it made him willing to receive Free-Soil votes. 
Indeed, he was never a bigot on such a question as this. 
Xo close-communion theories, no strictness of ecclesiastical 
organization, ever got mixed with that free, catholic open- 
mindedness which characterized him as a political man. 
Was there ever a candidate for office, indeed, who ever 
scrutinized very closely the creed or other qualilications of 
those who seemed inclined to support him ? In this respect, 
Boutwell was like all other men. 

He was not averse to "the coalition." The formula of 
William Jackson (one of the best of men, though he an- 
nounced this doctrine in oflcusive phrase), that "it will not 
do to be too perpendicular for the sake of principle," found 
ready assent in him, as in Wilson, Banks, and most of the 
other Democratic and Free-Soil leaders. Of course, I can- 
not tell the «tory of the coalition. It elected Boutwell gov- 
ernor ; though he had only some 43,000 popular votes, to 
60,000 or more for the Whigs, and 36,000 for the Free- 
Soilers. My figures are from memory, and may more 
nearly apply to his second year ; but they are not much out 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 433 

of the way. His inaugural was sliort, timid, and feeble, 
containing an old-fashioned protest against meddling with 
slaver}^ or resisting the Fugitive-slave Law, and some plati- 
tudes in favor of freedom generally, and the restriction of 
slaverj^ to its old boundaries. Mr. Sumner was chosen 
senator with great difficult}-, and on the twentj'-sixth ballot. 
The next j-ear the game was successfullj- repeated, as far as 
Boutwell was concerned. The great event of his second 
year was the passage of the first Maine Liquor Law. The 
governor vetoed it because it did not provide for the approval 
or disapproval of the people at the polls by secret ballot. 
The two houses then passed it without submitting the ques- 
tion in any form ; and he signed it : at which there was a 
great laugh, and a general expression of contempt. Other- 
wise his administration was a prudent, successful, and cred- 
itable one. 

Among his appointments was that of Thomas Russell as 
Judge of the Police Court of Boston, and Caleb Cnshing as 
Justice of the Supreme Court. Being an ultra devotee of the 
proslaverj- interest, Gushing' s nomination was verj" unac- 
ceptable to the Free-Soilers ; and the Council, which had a 
majority of Free-Soilers, determined to reject it. Five min- 
utes before the vote was taken, one of the Free-Soil coun- 
cillors, who was opposed to Gushing, was called into the 
ante-room ; and when he got back the roll was called, and 
Gushing was confirmed by one vote. 

To maintain their power, and to reform the Constitu- 
tion, the coalition resolved on a convention ; and the people 
called it in the fall of 1852, though the}^ elected Clifford 
governor at the same time. Boutwell was unexpected]}' 
beaten in Groton by John C. Park, but got in afterward 
from one of the rotten boroughs, — the town of Berlin. 
Mr. Northrop saj's, " Mr. Choate was his leading opponent." 
There were plent}' of Whigs there who had more influence 
than Mr. Choate, and some coalitionists who were not less 
influential than Boutwell. It is true that he spoke *vell, 
took and maintained a leading position, and made an able 



434 " WARRINGTON: " 

answer to Choate's speech on the district-system. Nobody, 
except, perhaps, Mr. Dana, showed a better talent for de- 
bate. Butler appeared here to better advantage than ever 
before or since. Sumner and old Gov. Morton also defended 
an equal s^^stem of representation ; but Boutwell, Wilson, 
Grisvvold, and the rotten -borough men, carried their point, 
though the people rejected their work, and three or four 
3-ears after, b}' general consent, decided that Sumner, 
Morton, and Choate were right. Boutwell, who went for 
abolishing tlie life-tenure of the judiciary (the best thing he 
did there) , was strong for the secret ballot, and was useful 
in matters of form and detail. When the Constitution was 
rejected, his condition was not quite so wretched and abject 
as that of Wilson. Pierce had been chosen President, and 
Boutwell had never forfeited his position in the Democratic 
party. He applied for the office of postmaster of Boston, 
but did not get it. In 1854 he wrote a brief letter, objecting 
to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and then waited 
for events. 

Northrop says he was " a leader in the organization of 
the Republican party of Massachusetts." This is a mistake. 
He was not heard of in that organization at all — certainl}* 
not in an}' place of prominence — in 1854-57. These were 
the 3'ears which witnessed the struggle for the formation of 
the party. He appeared as a candidate for office again, 
however, in 1858, three years after the Republicans had 
passed through tlie Know-Nothing imbror/Uo, two years after 
they had given Fremont the vote of the State by an immense 
majority, and one j'car after Gardner himself had been sent 
into retirement ; and b}' this time the party may be said to 
have been tolerubl}' well upon its legs. He was beaten by 
Mr. Train, and liad to wait a while longer. Mr Lincoln 
then gave him the office of commissioner of revenue. He 
got into Congress afterward, and, in 1866, was made secre- 
tary of the treasury. 

His biographer truly says that no other man living in the 
State has held so many offices. This is a tribute to his ability 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 435 

and usefulness as a public man ; for no man ever had fewer 
personal friends. Cold, selfish, intellectual, he never did 
an}' thing for an3'body upon an}- spasm of impulse, or freak 
of generosity. As a treasurer, he has the same talent which 
made him successful as a grocer, and since as a farmer. The 
stor}- goes that Gen. Gi'ant appointed A. T. Stewart to the 
treasur}' department because he had heard of his wonderful 
success in organizing the biggest dry-goods house in Amer- 
ica. This experiment failing, he tried Boutwell on the 
strength of a conversation with him, in which Boutwell told 
him that one 3-ear he sold thirty -five bushels of chestnuts off 
his Groton farm. If he could not have the great organizer, 
he would take the small economizer. The secretary is an 
honest man pecuniarily, a just man in all the ordinary rela- 
tions of life. In 1853 he was an ultra state-rights, city- 
rights, town-rights man : now he represents the idea of 
centralization and consolidation, and has no scruple as to 
the constitutionality of measui'es, provided the}' seem neces- 
sar}' to subserve what he deems the general welfare, and 
tend to keep the treasur}' full and the debt from increasing, 
no matter whether the people are crushed by unnecessary 
and unequal taxation, or relieved from it. 

N. p. BANKS. 

N. P. Banks's earl}- life is lost in the dim mystery of 
tradition ; for his history as a machinist and bobbin-boy is a 
doubtful legend, for the most part manufactured for cam- 
paign-purposes. I do not mean by this that he did not 
work in the shop and factory ; but he did not hurt himself 
with work. The story that he liked to travel to Cambridge 
to borrow books is much more likely. He was early on the 
Democratic side ; got into the Custom House early ; and, 
before 1842, edited the Democratic paper in Lowell a while. 
He was poor, and, I have been told, used to walk home from 
Lowell to "Waltham on Saturday, and to Lowell again on 
Monday. It is said that he also edited a paper in Woburn ; 
but he had no talent for editorial work, nor for the bar, 



436 " WARRINGTON. •" 

although he studied law, and appeared in one or two cases. 
"Walthani was a "Whig place in those da3s, and did not favor 
Banks's attempt to get into the legislature: it defeated him 
once or twice ; bi^t at last he was chosen to the House, and 
from that time he never failed to carr}- a majority of the 
AYaltham voters. 

I do not remember the precise circumstances of his first 
election to Congress ; but it was, if not directly', ^ct substan- 
tially, b}' a union of Free-Soilers and Democrats, and, I 
believe, as some sort of a compensation for Democratic 
support to Dr. Palfre}', then a Free-Soil candidate in a 
neighboring district. The coalition found him read}' to co- 
operate in overthrowing the "Whigs. "When John Quincy 
Adams died, in 1848, as Banks marched on foot at the 
funeral, while the old "Whig magnates rode in the carriages, 
he said to his neighbor, — blaspheming, I fear, at the same 
time, — " B}' and by j-ou and I will ride in those carriages, 
and those fellows will go on foot as we do now." And so 
it was. 

"We come now to 1854. The Know-Nothing had a dread 
of the politicians, especially of the Democratic politicians 
who had received office by Irish support. The}' were over- 
reached b}' the nomination of Gardner, a "Whig of no A-ery 
high reputation. Wilson had made himself useful to them, 
and thc}- were grateful and friendly to him. But Banks — 
well, no ; on the whole, no. The Rev. L3'man "Whiting, an 
Ortliodox clorgj'man of proved hostilit}- to the Pope, was 
preferred in the secret conclave ; as, in other districts. Rev. 
Mark Trafton, Rev. Robert B. Ilall, Damrell, Comins, 
CliafToo, Davis, and other enemies of the scarlet woman, had 
also been successful. DeWitt of "Worcester, and Anson 
Burlingame, were the only politicians of any repute who 
passed the ordeal, if I remember rightly. Banks was, the 
morning after, in a desperate strait, — poor, and with the 
certainty of losing his seat in Congress. But the Rev. Mr. 
"Whiting was induced to witlidraw his claim. Banks, though 
he probably never placed himself on record, gave the couu- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 437 

oils in his distiict to understand that the Pope would have 
no quarter from him ; and he was allowed to return to Wash- 
ington. 

I believe he supported Rockwell in 1855 ; and in 1856 he 
and Wilson, for the sake of forming a sectional part}' on 
Fremont and Da3'ton, crammed Gardner down for the third 
3'ear, with additional blasphenw. The next year, Banks 
swore himself through against Gardner ; served three years 
as governor, exhibiting on an excellent field again his talents 
as a histrion. He promptlj' acceded to the request of the 
legislature to remove Judge Loring, and vetoed three bushel- 
baskets full of parchment-rolls, containing the revision of 
the statutes, because tlie word "white" had been struck 
out of the militia chapter. At the end of the term, and all 
through his term, he was praised for great " executive abili- 
t}- ; " but carpers and doubters never saw wherein it consisted. 
In the fall of 1860 he went to Illinois, recei\'ing an offer of 
seven thousand dollars a year from Mr. Osborn of the Illi- 
nois Central, who wanted him as a star actor before the 
legislature of the State, and for other purposes. When the 
war broke out, he offered himself to the government, served 
patriotically and to the best of his abilit}' during the war, 
and, at its close, found his old district trying to select a man 
in place of Mr. Gooch, who had resigned to take a more lu- 
crative place in the Custom House. The choice was between 
J. Q. A. Griffin and James M. Stone. Banks appeared like 
a spectre, and took awaj- the nomination from both. 

Banks's talent is histrionic. His skill as a presiding- 
officer exhibits this talent, which ma}-, j)erhaps, be st^ied a 
genius for being looked at. His presence of mind seldom 
fails him ; his voice is alwa^-s rich, and in good order ; and 
his vocabulary easily arranges itself into sentences which 
mean little or nothing, though I have known his words, by 
accident, to fall into tlicir proper connections, and to conve}- 
sense as well as information. He is not a warm-hearted 
person, and was never known to go out of his way an inch 
to confer a favor on a friend or supporter, unless another 



438 " WARBINGTOX: " 

and a greater favor was expected at a future period. I have 
spoken of his general success in whatever he undertakes ; 
but I thinlv his essa^^s in the editorial and legal professions 
are exceptions to the rule. For a short time he had charge 
of " Tlie Lowell Advertiser, or Patriot," a Democratic 
paper ; but I could never discover an}- remarkable abilit}' in 
it at that time. He was born for a talker, not a writer. As 
a stump-speaker on the Democratic side, he early had a high 
rank ; and he has maintained it to this time. Few men 
appear better on the political platform. I do not think he 
is a great worker or a deep student. lie is a man of intui- 
tions, rather than of study and contemplation. His decis- 
ions as presiding-ofBcer never seemed to be the result of 
research into precedents : he decided according to the exi- 
gency, and trusted to find the reasons and precedents after- 
ward, and always succeeded. It is common to speak of his 
great and unrivalled success as a politician. It does not 
seem to me to have been ver^- great. His merit as a presid- 
ing-oflicer made him speaker of the House of Representatives 
two years, and president of the Constitutional Convention of 
1853. The same quality made him speaker of the United- 
States House, at a time when his peculiar political position 
— one-third Democrat, one-third American, and one-third 
Republican — pointed him out as the available man. The 
friendship of the Free-Soilers, won by his own tendency 
toward liberal principles, gave him a seat in Congress. But 
his Americanism, on the whole, has been the great blunder of 
his life, although b}- it he was chosen governor. It was con- 
trar}' to the principles of his j'outh, and the principles he 
had alwa3-s professed ; and no man can disregard these with 
impunit}". 

Banks is a man of the people, and it cannot be denied 
that he is a live man : he was a " bobbin-boy " in his youth, 
and has been " bobbin' around" ever since. His good luck 
is equal to Guj^'s, in Emerson's poem : — 

"Early or late, the falling rain 
Arrived iu time to swell his grain; 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 439 

Stream could not so perversely ■wind, 
But corn of Guy's was there to grind; 
The siroc found it on its way 
To speed his sails, to dry his hay; 
And the world's sun seemed to rise 
To drudge all day for Guy the Wise." 

" EX-MAJOR-GEN. B. F. BUTLER IN 1871. 

Gen. Butler represents as well as an}' man in the country 
that worst — I might almost sa}' that only vicious — principle 
of our present affairs, — the tendency toward personal gov- 
ernment, instead of a government of politics. This teudenc}' 
has grown up since the Rebellion was over. Eldest born of 
Shodd}', b}' War, it will die, by and b}', no doubt ; but mean- 
while it is lust}- and vigorous, and disgustingly healthy. For 
a man of such immense intellectual ability and vitality, he 
is the greatest piece of folly known to American politics. 
He has lost within the. last four or five years about all he 
gained during the five or six years before that. Hardl}' any 
man has been so befriended by circumstances and the course 
of events. His radical positions on antislavery questions 
during the war, — i.e., after he got over the notion that it 
was his dut}' to keep the peculiar institution alive in Mary- 
land, — his hanging of Mumford, his vigorous administration 
of affairs at New Orleans, his generally consistent course on 
reconstruction, the hatred with which he was endowed by 
the rebel leaders and the copperheads, all helped him in the 
outset. This gave him an election to Congress without a 
struggle, and in spite of some theories which shocked the 
conservatives of Massachusetts. But in Congress he has 
been a mere sensationalist and gladiator ; and, during the 
vacations, he has done nothing but make speeches without 
rhyme or reason. Butler lives for a day and a minute, for a 
cit}", town, or ward, not for a people and for all time. In a 
word, he has no sense, and I fear he never will have. This 
is sure to be regretted, because he has at bottom a good 
many good notions. He is a radical, and always was. He 
is never blinded hy fallacies unless he chooses to be. He is 



440 "WARRINGTON: " 

never intellectuall}- cheated, however willing he mtxy be inlel- 
lectuall}- to cheat other men. 

If Butler were an honest-minded and unselfish man, and 
with even a reasonable degree of sensationalism, he would 
be immensely useful in this countr}'. "The Newljur\i)ort 
Herald" tries to make him the leader of the new Republi- 
can departure. No person is so unfit for such a leadership, 
or for an}- leadership, " Press where j'ou see his white 
plume shine," quotha? It is impossible to press after it. It 
is in one part of the field this minute, and in another part 
next ; one moment dashing against enemies, and the next 
moment against friends, and the next hiding itself in some 
intrigue about a corporalship, to the utter disregard of how 
the battle goes, whether for or against them. What revenue 
reformer could trust and ride after such a man? what labor 
reformer? what temperance reformer? what radical of any 
sort? As a governor, if you can imagine him elected, he 
would propose two absurd things for every good one ; 
compel the laughter of the people, and opposition of the 
legislature ; multiply dead-locks and permanent quarrels ; 
and finall}' retire at his year's end with unanimous consent, 
or defeat which should be memorable as that of the Paris 
commune itself- 

"Warrington's" reply to butler. 
The " personal collision," hand to hand, which Gen. But- 
ler says he had with me some " twentj'-five 3-ears ago," was 
just this. I think it was in 1842 that I had reported for 
" The Lowell Courier " (of which I was the assistant editor) 
a very scaly and disreputable trick by which Butler had got 
a criminal released from the prisoner's dock in Concord court- 
house.^ I had returned to my post, and was one day sitting 
at my table, writing, when Butler entered, and asked who 
wrote the report. I told him I wrote it. He asked me if I 
would retract. I replied, that, if he would satisfy me that I 

1 See Appendix C. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 441 

had made any misstatement, I would correct it. That did 
not content him ; and he again demanded to linow if I would 
retract. " Certainl}^ not," said I. Whereupon, I being 
still seated at my desk, and he standing beside me, he brought 
down his hand, and, striking my spectacles, knocked them 
upon the floor. Whereupon Col. Schouler, editor of " The 
Courier," who had been standing by, an amazed listener, 
turned Butler out of the office. To do him justice, he was 
not reluctant to go : on the contrary, his evolutions toward 
the door, and down the stairs into the street, were performed 
with a celerity which gave rise to the impression that he 
feared the colonel's boot would re-enforce the order to quit. 
The city laughed about the account which we gave of the 
" collision." Everybody said it was characteristic of Butler ; 
and I never supposed it would be used to point a moral in 
relation to "The Springfield Republican's " hostility to him. 
I doubt, indeed, whether any one connected with that paper 
ever heard of the "collision" before: so it could not have 
contributed to the general's unpopularity in that office. 

As for me, — why, I have suffered for years under the repu- 
tation of being " a Butler man." Butler and I were elected 
to the legislature, ten years after this occurrence, on the 
same ticket. I remember it well ; for he was a dreadful load 
for the party to carry. "The New- York Nation " twitted 
me with supporting Butler when he was elected to Congress ; 
and indeed it was on this very account that I came near 
quarrelling with my friend Gen. Hawley, vrhose paper, " The 
Hartford Courant," I partially had charge of in tlie fall of 
18G8. r told Hawley he ought to let the Massachusetts 
Republicans fight their own battles and manage their own 
affairs. No : he insisted on pronouncing against Butler. 
He said he was a demagogue. "Well, everybody knew 
that." — "He was a blackguard." — "Of course he was." 
— "He was a scamp and a disorganizer generall}-." I could 
not deny it. But still I insisted, that, if Essex County wanted 
him, it ought to be allowed to take him ; and on the whole, 
if he could be confined there, so much the better for us gen- 
erally throughout the State. 



442 "WARRINGTON:" 

This is not the onlj- time I have suffered on Butler's 
account. One j^ear we asked him to preside at the Republi- 
can State Convention. I was not guilty in this more than 
others ; but, as I was secretary of the committee, I was blanied 
for it. Meeting Gov. Andrew one da}- on Tremont Street, 
he, after " passing the time o' day," asked rather gruffl}' why 
the committee had invited " that scoundrel Butler" to pre- 
side. I gave some excuse, and added, "You know, gov- 
ernor, that we invited 30U ; but you declined." — " Well," 
said he with an emphatic sort of grunt, " if I had supposed 
3'ou would have been fools enough to ask Butler, I would 
have accepted." I respected his honest, well-grounded, 
intelligent opinion, and did not press mine upon him an}' 
further. 

So in the legislature, when an election for major-general 
of the militia took place, and the " conservatives " were 
tr3'ing to defeat Butler for his radicalism b}- running Gen. 
Bartlett, I did what I could for the former ; and, whatever 
ma}' be the opinion of military authorities in relation to Big 
Bethel and Fort Fisher, nobody can deny, that, as was said 
of one of our former governors, ''he did well at Concord." 
I know of no man who carries on a fight where they fire only 
powder better than Butler.^ So I have never regretted the 
support I gave him for the major-generalship : and he was 
apparently very grateful for it, and acknowledged the favor 
by a neat letter and a present ; I can hardly call it a hand- 
some one, it being merely his phot ogr a j^h. Butler can hardly 
make out a connection between the *' collision " thirty years 
ago or so and "The Republican's " hostility to him. He 
succeeds, however, quite as well as in most of his attempts 
at a logical solution of the mystery which surrounds the 
opposition of the press to his nomination. Indeed, there is 
no mystery in it to the " average " mind. Butler is simply a 
political and social nuisance ; and that is all there is about 
him. 

1 He is tlie only one of our general3 who has been so lavisli of his 
powder as to lue it by the shipload. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 443 

BUTLER AS JUDGE AND EXECUTIONER OF THE REPUBLICAN 

PARTY.^ 

"Judge and executioner," — this is in accordance with 
Butler's own notions as to tlie functions he expects to per- 
form when he is elected governor of the Commonwealth. 
Heretofore these functions have been kept distinct : the 
legislature has made the laws, the judge has tried and 
passed sentence, and the sheriff has hanged the culprit. But 
what is the Constitution to Butler? If he is to be "judge 
and executioner" of a party, why not of a State govern- 
ment? and, if judge and executioner, wh}^ not legislator also? 
This whole theory of Butler's fitness for the governorship is 
built up on his supposed fitness for dealing with turbulent 
communities. He did well at New Orleans : so he will do 
well here. He executed Muraford : so he will have a drum- 
head court-martial in the anteroom of the Council Chamber. 
He helped frame the reconstruction acts for the government 
of the Ku-Klux : so he will govern the million and a half 
respectable people of Massachusetts quietly. Very well. 
When the people of this Commonwealth are willing to 
acknowledge that they are like the rebels of New Orleans 
and the Ku-Klux of Georgia, they may be willing to ask for 
Butler's great executive powers as a ruler over them ; but 
not before. And let the laboring-men beware lest they get 
more than they have bargained for in this man. He is not, 
like one of the sans-calottes of Paris, read}' to lead a mob 
of prostitutes and ruffians to the sacking of rich men's 
houses,, but (as he says) the owner of a major part of the 
stock in one corporation and of part of another, and an 
enem}- of strikes, who (to come back to Phillips) sim^Dly 
proposes to be "judge and executioner" of the Republican 
party. 

This is all ; and this is precisely what I have said here- 
tofore when I have traced his connection with the conspiracy 

1 "The Republican party knows that its judge and executioner has 
come." — "We>t>ell PmuLirs at Salisbury Beach, Sept. 14. 



444 ''WARRINGTON:" 

of 1870. Read Phillips's speech. It confirms everj' word 
that I have said as to that event, and more. It has wider 
bearings than last 3'ear. Mr. Richard Spofford introduced 
the orator at Salisbiuy, styling him "Gov. Butler." Who 
is Mr. Spofford? Always and now a Democrat. More than 
half Butler's caucuses are made up of members of that party 
and of Phillips men. Not trvcn a gathering of gentlemen 
and ladies at a family part}- like the Salisbury-beach festival, 
a party to which such men as Gov. Claflin, and Gov. Weston 
of New Hampshire, and John Quincy Adams, were invited 
(who, if the}- had been present, would have been grossly 
insulted by the ruffianism of the speeches) , is free from this 
raid of Butlerites. They are the crowd come to view the 
hanging. The flower of Essex, the beauty and literary skill 
of Newburyport and Beverly and Salem, gather at Salis- 
bury Beach, while the clown, as in Shakspeare's play, says, 
"Awake, Master Barnardine ! get up and be hanged." 
" Behold, Master Republican Party, your judge and execu- 
tioner!" 

Well, we were summoned to be hanged last j-ear ; but, like 
Barnardine, we said, " Go away, 3-ou rogue ! " and we got a 
reprieve for a twelvemonth. The clown himself proposed 
to hang us then ; and finally, when he concluded to let us off, 
he notified us that there would be a more peremptor}- hang- 
man in 1871. And the grim Butler appears. He says, that, 
when elected governor, he will " execute the laws ; " and it 
seems that he imagines his oath of office comprehends an 
execution of all the men who make the laws, as well as the 
laws themselves. For every rumseller who is jugged iu 
Sheriff Clark's jail, a Republican officeholder is to be trussed 
up. The whole party is to be made an example of; and a 
hundred thousand voters, more or less, are to " llasli their 
ivories in Surgeons' Hall" as soon as Jack Ketch has done 
his perfect work on them. Phillips is to listen to the 
last wail of the condemned ; and when he hears that the 
Republican party is dead and buried, "and that the people 
have strangled the press iu one hand and the moneyed corpo- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 445 

rations in the other," he says he " shall say Amen, so be it ; 
glory to God ! " and, after this pious ejaculation, he will go 
home and revamp his lecture on "the Lost Arts," includ- 
ing the art of printing among these old and discredited 
humbugs. 

Well, all this balderdash and Butlerdash of Wendell 
Phillips is hj no means without a meaning. I have alreadj- 
shown that the Butler movement of 1871 is but a second and 
enlarged and larger-papered and more widely-margined edi- 
tion of the Butler-Phillips movement of 1870. I have quoted 
already what Phillips said before the election of 1871: "I 
will step aside next year, and show you a real governor." I 
have requoted the European maxim, changed to suit the 
modern exigency, " Scratch Phillips, and you find Butler 
beneath." They mean the same thing. Phillips is trying 
to kill the Eepublican party from the outside ; Butler, from 
the inside. Phillips adores Butler, and thinks him a greater 
man than John A. Andrew, or, indeed, than any governor 
since Samuel Adams, simply because he has found out that 
Butler hates the Republican party quite as bitterly as he 
hates it, and has even more power to injure it. Phillips has 
hated the newspapers for thirty years ; yet he let them run 
over him rough-shod in 1870 : but Butler means to strangle 
them, and there an end. The voice is to be the only medium 
of communication with the public. I know now why Frank 
Bird is so odious. Hq is a paper-maker ! " Contrary to the 
king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill," 

Bird ! Let Alexander Rice beware ! And all these venal 
thirtj'-dollar-a-month scribblers, like "Warrington," — why, 
sentence is to be passed on them at once. " Away with him, 

1 say ! hang him with his pen and ink-horn about his neck ! " 
The great point, however, is the slaughter of the party. 
Both of these men mean to destroy it. From the clay Butler 
entered it, he has ivorkedfor its destruction. It is needless to 
recapitulate or to do more than allude to his abuse of, 
including personal insults toward. Gen. Grant ; his betrayal 
of Dawes, the Massachusetts candidate for spealver; his 



446 "WAliRIXGTOX: " 

attempted bargain in relation to the chainnansliip of the most 
important committee ; his desire to supplant Senator Wilson, 
— acts which are well known here, but are ten times better 
known in Washington and in New York and the AVest, where 
there is very much greater cause for the " strangling " of the 
press than there is here. 

The thi-ee men in this countr}- who have brought most 
discredit on America in Europe (says a distinguished gentle- 
man just returned from the other side) are Pendleton. Jim 
Fisk, and Ben Butler ; and he might have added, that these 
three men have brought more discredit upon America among 
Americans themselves than any other three men. It is not 
possible to exaggerate the mischief which Butler has brought 
to the part}' which he now professes a desire to reform and 
rehabilitate. What sent Missouri over to the Democracy? — 
temporaril}- perhaps, but long enough to elect Blair to the 
Senate. What has kept the great and enlightened State of 
New York out of Republican hands for the last three years? 
What has lost us the South ? That demoralization and corrup- 
tion of politics, that irresistible gi-avitation (thus far) to per- 
sonal government as against the government of law or political 
ethics, of which Butler is the most complete representative, 
take him all in all, in the Avhole country. If he should be 
nominated for governor of "this Commonwealth, no honest 
man could rejoice except those extreme optimists who think 
with Emerson that government is a succession of felonies, 
and magistrates a succession of felons, and whose hopes of 
ultimate good rest in the streaming through of some irresisti- 
ble tendency which is to make things all right by and by. 

" "W.VRRINGTON's " LIFE OF BUTLER IN 1871. 

NoNv I will tell 3-ou a secret. " Warrington" is collecting 
materials for a life of Butler. Seventeen Hartford publish- 
ing-houses are competing for the job, and thirty presses are 
now in course of construction for the printing of it. It is to 
begin at the beginning. Let me give you a choice specimen. 
He has in bis historical researches unearthed an old history 



PEN-PORTRAITS. Ail 

of England (London, 1706), which gives the follomng sug- 
gestive account of one Butler who flourished in the reign of 
James I. It was written b}' Artliur Wilson, Esq., a native 
of Suffolk, an Oxford man, a traveller in Spain, France, &c., 
with Robert Devereux, the last earl of Essex of that name, 
and said to have been " perfectly well informed in all the 
material transactions of King James's reign." In addition 
to this, let me add, he seems to have been endowed with the 
gift of prophecy. The first marginal note is Mr. Wilson's ; 
but the others I have supplied. 

" There was one Butler, an Irishman (which vaunted him- 
self to be of the house of Ormond), who was Butier a JMounte- 
a kind of Mountebank, which the Duke and ^^"i^- 
his Mother much confided in. This Butler was first an ap- 
prentice to a Cutler in London, and before his time expired, 
quitted his Master, having a running head, and went to the 
Burmudaes, where he lived some time as a His speculation in 
Servant in the Island ; and walking by the Ambergreece. 
Seaside with another of his Companions, they found a great 
Mass of Ambergreece that the Seas Bounty had cast up to 
them, which the}' willingly concealed, meaning to make their 
best markets of. Butler being a subtle Snap, Butier a Subtle 
wrought so with bis Companion, with Prom- Snap, 
ises of a Share, that he got Possession of it ; and in the next 
Dutch ship that arrived at the Burmudaes, he shipped him- 
self and his Commodities for Amsterdam, where, having sold 
his Bargain at a good Rate and made his Credit with his 
Fellow- Venturer cheap enough, engrossing it all to himself, 
he came into England, lived in a gallant and noble Equipage, 
kept a great and Free Table at his Lodgings in the Strand, 
which were furnished suitable to his Mind, His Great state in 
and had his Coach with six Horses with England. 
many Footmen attending on him, with as much State and 
Grandure as if his Greatness had been real. But tho' his 
Means lasted not to support this long, j-et it brought him 
into great Acquaintance ; and being prag- Becomes Partner 
matical in Tongue, and having an active in a Distillery? 



448 ''WARniXGTOy: " 

Pate, he fell to some Distillations, and other odd extracting 
Ilia Extracting Practices, which kept him afloat ; and some 

PracOces. ]\ien thought he had gotten the (long- 

dream'd-after) Philosopher's Stone ; but the best Recipe 
Is thought to have ""'l^ich he had to maintain his Greatness after 

gotten tho Tiii- his Amber-moncj' fumed and vapour' d awaj-, 

losopher's Stone. ^^^ guspected to come from his Friends at 
"Whitehall ; and the Story of his Death (if it be true) is one 
great Evidence of some secret Machination betwixt the 
The Duke desires Dukc and him, that the Duke was willing to 

to be rid of him. ije Yk\ of him. For Mischief being an En- 
grosser, is insecure and unsatisf3''d, when their "Wares are to 
be vented in man}' Shops. Therefore he was recommended 
upon some plausible Occasion by the Duke's Means (as 
Entertained by the Fame delivered it) to some Jesuites beyond 

jesuites. the Seas, where he was entertained with a 

great deal of specious Ceremony and Respect in one of their 
Colleges or Cloysters ; and at night the}' attending him to 
his Chamber with much Civility, the Chamber being hanged 
with Tapistry, and Tapers burning in stretch'd-out Arms 
"Over the left." upon the Walls; and when they gave him 
the Good-night, they told him they would send one who 
should direct him to his Lodging ; and they were no sooner 
out of this Room of Death, but the Floor, that hung upon 
great Hinges on one side, was let fall by Artificial f^ngines, 
A Faiiin Vermin, and the poor "Vermin Butler dropp'd into 
a Precipice where he was never more heard of. That there 
are such secret Inquisition-Conveyances, of a horrid Nature, 
is obvious ; and such close contrivances may fly up and 
down upon the Wings of Rumour ; but it is impossible to find 
The end of Butler out the Bottom of such black Pitfals, but 

—Amen! ^jtij as much danger as those that find the 

bitter Effects of them. And this was reputed to be the end 
of Butler." 

Looking further into this volume (which may be found 
in the Athenaeum) , I find other traces of the Butlers. For 
instance, it is related that in 15G9, during Elizabeth's reign, 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 449 

Edward and Peter Boteler (spelt Butler in -the index) ^ 
"after they had insulted their neighbors in Munster, and 
grew too big to be restrained within the bounds of law," 
they were imprisoned, but not brought to trial, "• as the}' 
deserved," saith the historian. " That which went a great 
wa3' to procure this grace," the historian goes on to saj', 
" was the near relation between them and the queen." It is 
to be hoped that the " near relation " between our modern 
Butler and the Washington administration maj' not prevent 
the former from being brought to trial "as his offences 
deserve." 

"Warrington" has also seized upon manj' curious illus- 
trations of Butler's means of gaining his great wealth. 1 
was amused at finding in his manuscript the following quota- 
tion from the Book of Jeremiah, w-hich he evidentl}' intends 
to make some use of as pointing a moral. I believe it is a 
schedule of the spoil which the Chaldeans got at Jerusalem. 
I had not supposed your correspondent so familiar with the 
Hebrew Scriptures. 

" Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of 
the Lord, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the 
house of the Lord, the Chaldeans brake, and carried all the 
brass of them to Bab3lon. 

" The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, 
and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass 
wherewith they ministered, took thej^ away. 

" And the basins, and the fire-pans, and the bowls, and 
the caldrons, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the 
cups ; that which Was of gold in gold, and that which was of 
silver in silver, took the captain of the guard away." 

I interviewed ' ' Warrington " as to his feelings in relation 
to Butler's frequent notices of him ; and he replied, that he 
felt like saying to the great orator what Mr. Bumble said to 
Mrs. Bumble concerning her tears: "It opens the lungs, 

1 It is curious, that, while this ancieut Butler was known as a Boteler, 
the inoderu and perhaps more notorious Butler was universally, after 
certain events in Yii-ginia in 18C5, known as the '^Bottled." 



450 "WARRIXGTON':" 

washes the countenance, exercises the ej'es, and softens 
down the temper: so cry awa}-." 

BUTLER IN 1873. 

The whole histor}- of Bailor and Butlerism in the State 
would be instructive reading. I have vcr}- full materials for 
one ; but it is never likely to be called for. Butler has com- 
plained, time and again, that he has been made an outlaw 
from the beginning. He made himself so. I know a man 
who lived in the same house with him when he was a school- 
boy. He told me that he has hated him ever since, because 
he licked Ben once, and the latter told the master, and got 
him licked. Aliuays a coward, he grew up, through a career 
of impudent pettifogging, into a position of some degree of 
height in those verj- discreditable tribunals, the criminal 
courts. His office was the educator of a pestilent brood of 
law3-ers as base and impudent as himself. The judges al- 
lowed him not only to insult the witnesses, but to browbeat 
and insult them. Sharp-sighted and sharp-witted, he was 
excellent at picking flaws in indictments, and noting excep- 
tions to judicial rulings; so that in "the judicial system," 
which is a system of hinderances, obstructions, and frauds, 
he became an important figure. Ho had great capacit}' for 
labor and for organization, and not onl}- moved his own ten 
pickers and stealers, but after he got into a still wider field 
of fraud, the civil war, he commanded all the thieving facul- 
ties of other men. Of course, such a man became an out- 
lay,-, lie got to Congress because he performed the part of 
Jack Ketch on a poor devil of a rebel in New Orleans. 

After that he used to say, " You fellows say you mean to 
keep me localized down in Essex: we'll see about that." 
So he wont for the State in 1871, with Essex all behind him, 
except a few towns, and a few true men whose courage and 
whose patience cannot sufficientl}- be applauded. He was 
beaten then and in 1873 ; yet circumstances were very fa- 
vorable to him, both years. Almost any other man of equal 
pln'sical and intellectual vigor could have carried the con- 



PEN'-PORTRAITS. 451 

vention either j-ear. He was ass enough to suppose that 
his own personal ambition and auclacit}- could compel a 
nomination against the deliberate will of a majorit}' of the 
voters, — deliberated when aroused; and ^-ot, when beaten, 
he left his friends in the lurch, and returned to Essex to 
growl over his "localization," to emplo}' his clerks writing 
notes stabbing below the arm all the men he could reach who 
had opposed him, and lending himself to all the private 
quarrels of every town to pa}' his hired assassins. The 
roar with which Gloucester itself sprang upon the dead 
carcass and dismembered it is his recompense. This base 
man has been the trusted and influential adviser of Gen. 
Grant in all the matters appertaining to the offices for ^-ears 
past. 

What a pitiable delusion the "labor-men," whether skilled. 
or unskilled, day-laborers or mechanics, are in, if they sup- 
pose thej' are to gain any thing but increased taxation 
and new disabilities and wrongs if the Butler s^'stem is to 
cany the da}- ! Originally, b}' the emergencies to which a 
j-oung pettifogger, struggling for a living, is subjected, Butler 
became a ten-hour man and a labor-reformer. He was as 
honest in this as it was in his nature to be. He fought 
the Lowell corporations, agents and overseers, brought suits 
for the factorj'-girls, and made speeches in the Lowell City 
Hall ; but, as he rose in position at the bar, his ability and 
sharpness made him useful to the corporations, and the}' fre- 
quently employed him. He fought hard for the Ten-hour 
Law in the days of the coalition, and, as he says (though 
this v,-as after Sumner was chosen senator, and Boutwell 
governor, instead of before, as he puts it), Lowell was car- 
ried for the coalition ticket in 1852 ; and the year after lie 
was put on it, and also chosen. I do not remember that he 
showed any zeal on the subject afterward. At any rate, 
he was a member of the Senate in 1859, and never lifted his 
finger or made a motion of any sort on the subject. From 
being a liberal and progressive Democrat, he about this time 
became an intense hunker. In the fall of 1859 he ran for 



452 ''WAIililXGTON:" 

governor as the Democratic candidate, and received SS.OS'G 
votes ; and this, instead of being the largest A-ote, as he 
boasts, was less than Beach received in 1856 and 1858, less 
than Boutwell received in 1850 and 1851, and Bishop in 
1852, and 20,000 or 30,000 less than the Democratic party 
has received since he left it. In 18G0 his hunker tendencies 
led him to betray- Douglas, and sent him finally over to the 
secession Democrac}', whose candidate for governor he 
became, receiving 6,118 votes. All this was about the time 
of the re-oi'ganization of the Middlesex woollen company in 
Lowell, hy which he became a mill-owner. When the war 
broke out, he went into that. 

Nobody desires to disparage his patriotism or his military 
services ; but it was not ver}' long before he was found 
•appointing as his quartermaster the most notorious jobber 
in New England, and contriving to throw contracts into the 
hands of his brothers-in-law and a ring of relatives and 
political associates. lias he ever since that time, until he 
conceived the idea of making the international labor move- 
ment subservient to his political ambition, shown any s} inpa- 
th}' with tlie labor part}? Never. He is the representa- 
tive, on the other hand, of the piratical and cut-throat 
system of politics, which is death to the mechanic, because 
it piles on him accumulating debts, and keeps him down, 
forever a son of toil, for the benefit of just such base pluto- 
crats. If he is for co-operation, he would start a co-opera- 
tive theft societ}- ; and the protective union would, in his 
hands, become the independent order of Dick Tur[)in. It is 
nothing less than insanit}- for mechanics to put themselves 
into his power. 

I hear people saj' he bowed gracefull}' to the decision of 
the Worcester Convention. Just as a condemned criminal 
bows gracefully to the invitation of the hangman to have his 
arms pinioned and be led out to execution. The ring of 
necessity was round him. The iron shroud was collapsing, 
as in the old Blackwood stor}' ; and at the stroke of the bell 
he had only time to fold bis arras, utter his last words, and 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 453 

make an attempt to die with decenc}'. He went out the 
worst-beaten man that has been known in our political 
history for years ; for the stake for which he pla3-ed was 
nothing less than the presidenc}', and he ignominiously lost 
it. I do not believe he will ever have half so favorable an 
opportunitj' again. One worse, and apparently a final catas- 
trophe, has been added to his long series of failures. The 
people are against him, and he is against himself. A self- 
willed egotist, he asks no advice, and takes none when 
offered. Conscienceless and remorseless in all his public 
acts, however kind and agreeable in the private relations of 
life, he must continue to fail until the people of Massachu- 
setts and the United States become as conscienceless and as 
remorseless as himself. Whatever happens now, Butler is 
certain, if he lives three or five j-ears longer, to be the best 
hated and the most justly despised politician in the country. 
As sure as fate, all this salar^'-grabbing gang have got to go 
to the wall, even if another gang of thieves take their places : 
and they have got to be pushed to the wall ; for Providence 
has probably got enough to attend to in a general wa}', with- 
out speciall}' taking care of Massachusetts politics. "We 
liave good poetical authorit}' for believing that 

" God hates your sneak in' creturs that believe 
He'il settle things they run away and leave, — 
The sneakin' kind, that sets and thinks for weeks 
The bottom's out of the universe coz their own gill-pot leaks." 

If So-and-So, and This, That, and the Other, are for Butler, 
so much the worse for them., not for ws. 

butler's epitaph. 
I understand, that, although Butler has drawn his back 
pay, he feels constrained by public opinion to devote it to 
some public institution. One of the Lowell banks (being 
the one he keeps his deposits in) is his present preference ; 
thougli he thinks favorably of the Middlesex Mills, the Pen- 
tuclcet Navigation Compau}', the Ballon Boot and Shoe Sew- 
ing Machine Company-, the Cape Ann Granite Company (or 



454 "WARItlXGTON:" 

whatever its name maj' be), and some others. If he seledtg 
the Granite Compan}-, there will be a suitable inscription 
placed on one of the stones to be used in the enlargomcnt of 
the Post Office ; perhaps this : " I have builded a monument 
more lasting than (my own) brass." 

HENRY WAUU KEECHER IN 1864. 

Beecher is the greatest stump-speaker we have, as Phillips 
is the greatest orator. His language is as common and 
forcible as Cobbett's ; his illustrations homely and humorous, 
and exactly suited to the average abilities of the people. He 
knows men and women, and always keeps his hearers on 
good terms with him ; and, when he has any thing to say, 
says it in a wa}' which takes hold of them and carries them 
along. He sa3-s what the people have been saying to them- 
selves, and so flatters them with the idea that they have been 
thinking wisel}' all the time. So sometimes he confirms 
good ideas, and sometimes bad ones. Beecher seems to me 
to be exceedingl}' cautious, even cunning, in the use of lan- 
guage. It would be difficult to catch him in the utterance 
of an}' heres}', political or religious, even if his prominent 
position and popularit}' did not deter the heres3'-hunters from 
pouncing upon him as the}' did upon his brother Charles. 
He is a thorough Yankee, loving money as well as the best. 
He is a wonderful stump-orator. He tells stories and cracks 
jokes, and oft-times touches the sympathies of his hearers 
in a masterl}' Avay. Beecher is a humorist, and is full}' 
conscious of the fact. Indeed, I doubt whether men often 
say witty and humorous things by accident, or, at least, 
witliuut being fully conscious of tlie wit and humor as soon 
as the word is spoken. Speaking of Xapole(Mi in one of his 
lectures, Beecher said he was superior to his rivals, the other 
kings of Europe ; not so good, perhaps, as "an average good 
man when he isn't temj^ted," l)ut, on the whole, a useful man. 
AVhat a satire on the whole human family was contained in 
this luunorous hit ! Speaking of the swiftness with which we 
had raised an army of ludf a million men, he said, "Our 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 455 

only military education heretofore had been once or twice a 
3'ear to laugh at the militia." What an exquisite idea of a 
military education ! 

Beecher treats the question of emancipation with great 
nonchalance ; intimating, that, if the blacks are forty years 
longer in the wilderness, the}^ ma}- consider themselves well 
oft' ; while their rebel masters and haters are hardly used if 
thej' are kept tramping about forty weeks. Philadelphia (and 
the great mass of the enlightened people of the country agree 
with Philadelphia) answers, and says, "We prefer that the 
white traitors, rather than the black Unionists, shall have 
their term in the swamps and morasses, and the Tennessee 
Moses ^ ma}' flounder round with them for aught the}- care." 
If Beecher had not been destitute of any acute moral sense, if 
he had not been a mere sensationalist and a quack, he never 
could have given utterance to such a sentiment, or to his 
quasi indorsement of the New-Orleans murders. He may 
make as many jokes as he pleases : the people will never 
forget such insensibility to the sufferings of the white and 
black Unionists of the South. 

REPRESENTATIVE BUMSTEAD IN 1873. 

The office-holding class is as distinct a class as the shoe- 
and-leather interest, or the railroad interest, or the banking 
interest, and a great deal more expensive than either of them. 
Trace the career of one of those mute, inglorious Simpkinses, 
or, since the war was over, those Bumsteads, guiltless of their 
foeman's blood. He is the progeny of Free-Soil parents : that 
seems, in the light of antislavery events of the last twenty- 
live or thirty years, to be needful, and necessary to be stated. 
The number of those fathers who cast the first Free-Soil 
vote in Podunk, or presided at the first antislavery meeting 
in Snake-hollow Corners, is enormous. The boy grows up ; 
he goes to the village school more or less every year, from 
the time he is five till the time he is fifteen years old ; he 

1 Prea. Johnson. 



456 "WARRINGTON: " 

enters an acadeni}' ; he works for his board ; he goes to the 
singing-school, and home with the prettiest girl unless cut 
out b}' a rival in her affections ; he is employed as a teacher ; 
tries conclusions with an uin-uly boy, and flogs him into sub- 
mission, thereby getting his first impressions in favor of 
compulsory education and the Prussian 83'stem ; joins tlie 
Good Templars, and becomes in time the grand cocked-hat 
of the order ; gets him a farm, and raises the prize-cucurabor 
for the annual show ; is appointed chairman of the committee 
on milch steers ; studies political economy ; is converted to 
the Stebbins theory of the prohibitory law ; believes in for- 
bidding all drinks, except that produced from apple-trees, 
he having an incipient orchard of that class ; is mentioned 
by partial friends for constable of the town ; takes his first 
oath of office with an emotion not to be described ; resolves to 
become a public man ; is soon promoted to the office of school- 
committee-man ; neglects no home duty meanwhile, but raises 
sturdy boys, pays his taxes without protest or abatement, 
and contributes an occasional item of news to the county 
paper ; engages after a while as a regular correspondent ; 
becomes interested in antiquarian matters ; writes to his 
uncle in Maine to know if he has any genealogy of the Bum- 
stead family ; helps start the public library, and contributes 
a volume of patent-office rei)orts ; rapidly rising in town 
ofilce all the while, through the various grades, — overseer 
of the poor, assessor, selectman, and finally representa- 
tive in the General Court ; takes his carpet-bag, makes 
his way to the State House, seeks an introduction to the 
sergeant-at-arms, and tells him his history ; goes to see the 
speaker ; produces letters recommending him as a suitable 
man for tliii railroad, the education, the public charitable, 
the town, the roads, the judiciary, and the finance eonuuit- 
tees, — all or any three of them ; gets ai)pointed on county 
estimates ; posts up the Podunk statesman on all matters 
of interest which occur ; votes to instruct Senator Wilson, 
and censure Senator Sumner, and to increase ever3body's 
pay ; and goes home, witli the approbation of an applauding 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 457 

conscience, to his summer farming and his autumnal office- 
seeking. This is the career of several hundred, if not 
several thousand, fellows who " run " the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, — God save it ! 

RUFUS CHOATE. 

Mr. Choate was certainly a man of genius ; one of the 
few men of genius in political and professional life. This 
was, after all, the great secret of the liking people had for 
him. There were other lawyers as learned as he ; for instance, 
Mr. B. R. Curtis, Mr. C. G. Loring, Mr. Sidney Bartlett : 
there were also others as acute and skilful as he in tlie trial 
of causes ; for instance, Mr. B. F. Butler and Mr. Otis P. 
Lord. But these, though men of learning and shrewdness. 
were not men of genius ; especially the first-named class had 
not this qualit}'. The}' were not men of whom anecdotes 
are told ; men who say things worth reporting and remem- 
bering, poetical things. I have been told, that, when Mr. 
Choate first came to Boston, the leading law3'ers were dis- 
posed to prevent him from rising in the world ; but they 
soon had to give way. He raked them all down, to use a 
vulgarism. The man who came nearest rivalship to him in 
the field of eloquence was Peleg Sprague, who, soon after 
1840, was placed upon the bench of the District Court. 
Richard Fletcher, one of the most persuasive of men, as 
well as one of the ablest of jurists, must have been a very 
formidable antagonist. Mr. Rantoul might have disputed 
with Mr. Choate the palm of superiorit}' at the bar, — for he 
was a far greater man in most respects, having the logical 
facult}' and the debating power better developed than almost 
an}' Massachusetts man of this century, — but he chose the 
broader and nobler field of politics. Mr. Choate soon 
reached the position of acknowledged leader of the bar, and 
kept it till he died. Although he mingled to some extent 
in politics and legislation, he never succeeded in these fields. 
He was a great lawyer, rather a great trier of causes. I 
am not awai-e that he ever did any thing toward simplify- 



458 " WARRIXG TON : " 

iug or ameliorating the law, or getting rid of its old-world 
rubbish. He was neither a Brougham nor a Roniill}'. In 
his peculiar sphere he was unrivalled ; but that sphere was 
not the greatest. 

There are traditions as to the extraordinar}- sensation Mr. 
Choate created in the House of Representatives at "Washing- 
ton when he first made his appearance there as an orator ; 
but in an old number of "The Salem Register" of 1833, 
which I came across not long ago, I found, quoted from one 
of Mr. James Brooks's letters to " The Portland Adver- 
tiser," the following curious description of the promising 
young member from Essex, which would seem to appl}- to 
some such man as Mr. Charles Hudson, or Mr. John Davis, 
rather than to a man of Mr. Choate's fervid temperament : — 

. "3Ir. llufiis Choate is a most promising young man from Essex 
District, who does not spealc often, but who speaks much to the 
purpose. Few men in Congress command more attention. lie has 
a well-disciplined, but j^erhaps not a brilliant, mind ; or, if brilliant, he 
has not suffered himself to strike out many oratorical sparks in the 
oratorical debates in which he has participated. He argues closely, 
clearly, and, of course, forcibly. He came into Congress with a high 
reputation preceding him, — not always the most fortunate recom- 
mendation ; for it makes critics more critical, and the public more 
greedy, — and has thus far sustained the expectations of the public, 
and increased his own reputation. There is an apparent frankness, 
a sincerity, and sober earnestness, in his manner, when he addresses 
the House, which are admirably calculated to make an impression, 
and which does always have an effect. Mr. Choate returns from the 
House this session to pursue his profession of law at Boston, it is 
said, where there is but little doubt that he must soon be in the front 
rank at the bar. Massachusetts will lose much in losing him from 
Congress; for, the longer he was there, the stronger he would be- 
come." 

Mr. Choate was a great speech-maker, and his death the 
cause of great speech-making in others. " Lying Jack 
Campbell has added a new terror to death ! " exclaimed Lord 
Brougham when he heard that Lord Campbell was about to 
write the lives of the chancellors. I think Choate would 
have made a similar exclamation if he had been told in his 



PEN'-POETBAITS. 459 

last illness that Ben Hallett would take the opportunit}'' of 
his death to eulogize his religious character. Ought there 
not to be a statute against such outrages ? 

Choate was a man of the world and of common sense, 
who, however disappointed for himself or his friends, did not 
sulk and growl and grumble, and go about exhibiting his 
wounds, and telling how badh' he had been used, and getting 
onl}' laughter instead of sj-mpath}'. He pursued his regular 
vocation with matchless ability- to the end ; and, though 
occasionall}' turning aside to give the public the fruits of his 
scholarship and reading in an oration or lecture, did not 
make this his whole business, but did it onl}- at intervals, as 
he could snatch moments here and there from the incessant 
warfare he was waging for his life and the welfare of his 
family. There is a world-wide difference between a man of 
this sort, whatever his opinions ma}' be, and one of the nice 
men of Boston. Choate was not one of the " Massachusetts 
magi." He was alwa^-s at work. He was not seen except 
when he was bus}'. If you wanted to look at him, you had 
to go into the Court House ; and there he was, seated at his 
table, and exercising his wonderful skill in winning a victor}', 
rightfully or wrongfully, for his client. He was generally 
wrapped up in half a dozen great-coats and tippets ; but, 
when he came to his argument, he unrolled himself, and 
went at the reluctant and suspicious jur}', with a confidence 
in his cause, and a skill in its presentation, which were 
wonderful to see and hear ; and, when intermission came, he 
hastil}' wrapped himself up again, darted into Parker's for 
dinner, and then back to finish his speech. It was work, 
work, work, every-day work, necessary' work ; and, though 
not the ver}- highest work for a man of great gifts, yet work 
requiring great intellectual force. To be the greatest of 
advocates, the acknowledged leader of the bar, the ablest 
and shrewdest man to fight battles in the courts, the cuu- 
ningest at tongue-fence, and equal to any at logic-chopping ; 
to magnetize and electrif}" and bamboozle and somnambulize 
the juries ; to fill the house with heai-ers, — big men and little 



460 "WARRINGTON:" 

men, the educated and the illiterate, — even svhen the con- 
test was on a dry question of law, or involving a small sum 
of money, — this was evidence of greatness which all men 
can admire. For my part, I think one of the chief attrac- 
tions of Boston is gone. It was almost a sufficient solace 
for scantiness of employment that I could go to East Cam- 
bridge and see Choate and Butler try the case of Kimball 
and Devens, which lasted two or three weeks ; but he is 
gone, and there is nobody left worth hearing at all times. 

Choate was the greatest genius who has appeared in the 
courts of late years, or perhaps ever appeared here. People 
looked at hira with admiration, as at Webster, with a mix- 
ture of wonder. There are single tones and phrases and 
words of his which haunt the memory. Get some old habitue 
of the court to imitate them, and to repeat to you how he 
used to talk to the judge and jury. In the Phoenix-bank 
trial, before Judge Wjxshburn, he had a point of preliminary 
law to argue, and there was an adjournment till the morning 
for preparation. He came in, and, for two or three hours, 
talked as I thought no mortal ever talked before, or ever 
would again. It was a point involving some legal principle ; 
and his little phrases, — something about the time when our 
ancestors brought the first rude law out of the woods of Ger- 
many, or tracing it to the day "when the warm blood of 
Seneca was let out in the Roman bath," the last two words 
being uttered just as he turned touard his manuscript again, 
or with that lift of the shoulders, and lowering of the voice, 
which were so attractive, — all these knacks of expression 
were as delightful evidently to Mr. Webster, who was i)res- 
ent, as to any one else ; for he followed him with the most 
expressive interest in his face through the whole speech. 

Mr. Choate, in one of his moments of intellectual "free- 
dom," but moral despondency, wrote to his friend Charles 
Eames, then in Caraccas, in the year 18o5, a dismally hu- 
morous account of the Hiss legislature,' and the " enormous 



1 Joseph Hiss, a member, was expelled from the legislature of 1855 
for misdemeanor. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 461 

impossible inanity of American things." "Your estate is 
gracious," said he, "that keeps yoxx out of hearing of our 
politics. Anj' thing more low, obscene, feculent, the mani- 
fold oceanic heavings of history have not cast up. "We sliall ' 
come to the worshfp of onions, cats, and things vermiculate. 
Renown and grace are dead. ' There's nothing serious in 
mortalit}'.' Bless 3'onr lot," he continues, " which gives 
3'ou volcanoes, earthquakes, feather-cinctured chiefs, and 
dusky sights of the tropics." Such little felicities of expres- 
sion occurred constantly during his pleadings and in his 
orations. I remember his quoting from "Ivaulioe" some- 
thing like this, — "Throw over our spices, and robe the 
roaring ocean with our silks;" and Dr. J, W. Stone put it 
phonographically down without quotation-marks, and "The 
Boston Courier" spoke of it as a specimen of Choate's 
genius. 

[1870.] 

WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING AND THE RADICALS. 

Mr. Channing, in his discourse at the Radical Club in 
Boston, gave an account of his wanderings, which was indeed 
very interesting : I mean his spiritual wanderings. He told 
how, upon leaving the Divinity School, he found himself a 
deist ; how he preached as a candidate in Brattle Street, and 
I believe somewhere else in Boston, and how he failed 
because he was not at one with the societies to whom he 
spoke ; how he went to Europe and studied ; how he became 
a minister to the poor in New York ; went to Cincinnati, 
and was settled regularly' as a Unitarian ; when Parker 
arose, how he believed with him, and sincerely had to tell 
his people so, and leave them ; how he became au associa- 
tionist, then a mystic, abandoning Parker for Behmen and 
Swedenborg ; went to Europe again ; returned when the war 
broke out ; abandoned non-resistance when he saw the 
soldiers march through "VYashington to the South, and wanted 
to go with them (once before this he had abandoned the 
peace doctrine when the slave-catchers invaded Boston) ; 



462 " WARIilXG TON: " 

how he went to Europe again, and now has rctumecl, having 
found peace and stabilit}", as I inferred, but in what I did not 
fully understand ; and I mistrust that he has not j^et found 
it, and perhaps that he will not, unless he seeks for it where 
Brownson and Hecker sought for it, — in* the Holy Catholic 
Church. 

I used to hear Channing, about 184:9, in a hall in Broiu- 
field Street, preach Fourierism. Earlier than that, I remem- 
ber him speaking on the antislavery platform with Garrison, 
Phillips, Pillsbmy, and John A. Collins, disagi'ceing with 
them as to the wickedness of the Union, if I remember 
rightly ; always saying a good word for the nation and 
for unity, which was rather his hobb}'. Mr. Channing 
remains a mystic, a religious man, a socialist, penetrated 
with sentiment, brimful and running over with love for the 
human race, and apparently not quite able, on this very 
account, to pour out his love to advantage. His speech was 
deeply interesting. On the topic which may be considered 
the principal one at this club — to wit, " The Divine Char- 
acter of Jesus " — he was mystical as on all others ; but he 
said he was a Christian, and could not, like Francis E. 
Abbott, give up the name ; and the bearing of his address 
was on what I maj- call the conservative side. At this club, 
Jesus (as the Son of God in an}" peculiar sense) is — I mean 
to speak respectfully — on the defensive. Nobody defends 
the Church ; and long ago, as the London wits said when the 
case was decided in favor of the essayists and reviewers, 
"Hell has been dismissed with costs" in all the polite 
ecclesiastical courts of this neighborhood. As to the Scrip- 
tures, nobod}' within the same circles pretends to believe 
in their verbal inspiration. Rev. Dr. Bellows and Rev. Dr. 
Clarke are holding a sort of ecumenical council in Mr. Hale's 
monthly ("The Old and New") ; and they are showing, the 
first, that, the less you believe in the verbal inspiration of 
the Bible, the more of a believer you are ; and the second, 
that miracles are to be believed, but they are not miraculous, 
and that supernaturalism is the most natural thing in the 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 463 

world. Thej' have both at last taken their stand on the 
character of Jesus, placed their backs against the rock, 
spoken of the resurrection and the divine Sonship as settled 
and defensible articles of faith, and mean to stand a long 
siege, if necessary-. • Mr. Channing, though he did not say he 
had abandoned Mr. Parker's views, and indeed, as I thought, 
seemed to indicate that he still held to them, talked about 
the divine effluence, and so on, in a way to bring him in 
sj'mpathy with Mr. Clarke. Wendell Phillips spoke briefl}' ; 
and though he did not intimate that he believed Jesus was 
God, or the Scriptures inspired, except as all good books 
are inspired, he rested his defence of Christ and Christianity 
on their results. He thought without them we should not 
have had our modern freedom and progress. The " fifty 
j'ears of Europe," which are better " than a cycle of Ca- 
thay-," he thought attributable to the fact that Europe has 
had Christianity', and Catha}* has had it not. 

Mr. riigginson made the speech for the ultra-radical side, 
and gave Mr. Phillips some ugly facts as to the authors and 
promoters of the antislavery cause and the cause of woman's 
rights. Lucy Stone spoke of her Oberlin experiences ; told 
how Prof. Finney's metaphysical absurdities satisfied her 
that Jesus was a man only ; and if he was a man, then all 
men have the possibilit}' of becoming as good as he. Mr. 
Clarke was called on, and spoke humorousl}' of those who were 
so anxious to disown the Christian name, sa3'ing that he did 
not think they could escape in this way a Christian character ; 
citing the case of those who in the last day would say, 
" Lord, when saw I thee an hungred," &c. ; and he gave the 
ultras some other sharp shots. Mr. Weiss, Mr. Bartol, Mr. 
Chadwick, and Mrs. Howe, also spoke ; but I heard them 
imperfectly. I did not feel specially interested in the con- 
flict, except to notice, that, as I said in the outset, Jesus 
seemed to be on the defensive in this meeting of Boston 
" liberal Christians," and that the assailants were in no wise 
disposed to yield even to such stalwart and eloquent men as 
Channing, Phillips, and Clarke. 



464 "WAIililXGTOX: " 

[1808.] 
RICHARD n. DAXA, JUX. 

It is Mr. Dana's misfortune that he comes into politics so 
late. He went to sea in early life, then studied and prac- 
tised law, and, probably, has not been well able to afford 
much of his time to legislative service. He was in the Con- 
stitutional Convention of 1853, and was reckoned to have won 
more laurels there than an}' of the younger members, except, 
perhaps. Gov. Boutwell. He has been United-States district- 
attornej', but resigned when Johnson went over to the enemy : 
so, although he was an enem}' of impeachment, and, after its 
failure, tried b}' legislative resolution, and b}- a dinner-invita- 
tion to Mr. Fessenden, to exalt the seven recusant senators 
at the expense of the thirty-five true ones, he is quite un- 
tainted with suspicion of friendliness toward the President 
or his theories and policy. Indeed, his policy had no more 
able antagonist in Massachusetts than Mr. Dana. His 
speech and his address to the people in 18G5, when Johnson, 
bj' his North-Carolina proclamation, broached his re-action- 
ar}' policy, are wonderfully able documents. In the legisla- 
ture of 1867- G8, Mr. Dana represented Cambridge in the 
House. He performed great service in the debate on the 
Soldiers' -bounty Bill, and made an able speech on the usury 
laws, which showed a familiarity' with the writings of Ben- 
tham and Mill, and a willingness to accept their philosophic 
teachings on this subject, and which was also remarkable as a 
specimen of his admirable stj'le, and his skill in the arrange- 
ment of his materials. Mr. Dana is an admirable narrator 
and advocate. He is a field-marshal of words : I hardly 
know a man so skilful as he in their use. 

He also astonished his friends and enemies by appearing 
as a radical opponent of the railroads, or rather of the rail- 
road presidents and superintendents, who are considered by 
a good man}' people to be crowding the legislatures and the 
people a little too much in these late days ; and a contest 
with whom is now deemed inevitable, sooner or later. These 



PEX-PORTRAITS. 465 

free-trade and anti-corporation notions are, however, excep- 
tions to Mr. Dana's general conservatism : this, in all 
political directions, is extreme. He was a Free-Soiler in 
1848, and stood by the part}', doing it good service ; 3'et 
he opposed it when it tried to drive Judge Loring from the 
bench : and his advocac}' of the Constitution of 1853 was 
coupled with so many apologies and excuses for the radical 
character of some of its provisions, that he did it much 
more harm than good. About the year 1851 or 1852 (and 
not just before the war, as one of the Boston papers sa^'s) 
he addressed a letter to Lord Radstock, an English friend, 
in which, while professing to give the result of the secret- 
ballot experiment, he substantially declared against the 
ballot itself.^ He opposed the nomination of Mr. Sumner 
by the State Convention of 1862 ; made some xavy bad 
speeches on national politics, the emancipation polic}', &c., 
in that year, as well as in 1861 and 1863, and in the State 
conventions of the Republican party, of which he has gen- 
erally been a conspicuous member ; and he was always 
counted on, and justified the count, for an earnest and per- 
sistent opposition to ever}- step in the direction of a more 
vigorous and robust antislaver}' polic}'. His conservatism 
has been modified b}' his intense partisanship, his general 
S3'mpathy with the antislavery and Republican cause, and 
his hatred of Dcmoci'ac}-, which to his mind is sjuionj-mous 
with insubordination and license ; but, for all that, he has 
been generallj- reckoned as a block in the way of antislavery 
political effort. In this, however, he has not differed from 
most of the Cambridge antislavery men, even those who by 
nature are radicals, as he is by nature the reverse of that. 
The old Harvard set, ultra and vilel}' proslaver}', have been 

1 We used to make a good deal of opposition to Dana on account of 
it; but I think we sliall find it more nearly to conform to our ideas just 
now (in ISKJ) than formerly. Tlie ballot is not so much a yea-and-nay 
question as it was. "When this letter was written, the evil to be reme- 
died was intimidation: now it is fraud; and the conditions, so to speak, 
of friendship, or opposition to it, are diiferent from what they were in 
IHo'd. — Letter to Mr. Bird, March 3, 1876, 



4G6 "WARRINGTON:" 

put out of sight. Instead of these, we have Lowell and 
Xorton, and Pierce and Dana, with "The North- American 
Review," and its week!}- tender, "The New- York Nation," 
organs of a Republicanism whose only characteristics are 
captiousness and namb^'-pambjism, and a high-stepping 
affectation of contempt for men just as honest as themselves, 
and a good deal better acquainted with American men and 
American institutions. 

STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 

Douglas's visit to Boston in 18G0 excited a good deal of 
interest. Douglas was a rebel and a bolter, and he de- 
stroyed the heretofore invincible Democratic part}'. The 
people wanted to see a man who had done this : so tliC}' fol- 
lowed after him, and exhibited a curiosity to hear him speak. 
Tliere was a great crowd in Bowdoin Square to hear him 
speak. It was largely Irish ; but as the Irish had votes, and 
were men and brethren, in spite of the two-years' amendment, 
it ho.d a certain element of power. I did not hear his speech 
on this occasion ; but, as printed in the papers, it was one 
of the most clieelcy productions ever delivered. Douglas was 
at Cambridge, and sat on the platform during a considera- 
ble portion of the exercises in the church, and spoke at the 
dinner in Harvard Hall, to whicli I liad admission as a mem- 
ber of the class of 1806 ! When this class was called, it 
being scantil}' represented, an honorable senator and m3-self, 
neither of wliom graduated at an}' college, stepped in, and 
passed muster ver}' well. I got a seat nearl}' in front of the 
little giant. Being somewhat engaged during the first part 
of the exercises, I did not have an opj)ortunity to see wliether 
he lifted his food to his moutli upon his fork, — which, I 
believe, is the test of gentilit}-, — but of course he did. 
Popular sovereignty cannot mean that any man has a right 
to scorn the dictates of fashion. He was called out b}' 
Pres. Felton, and made a brief and pleasant speech, and 
was exceedingly well received. 

Douglas's friends are in the habit of telling what a splendid 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 4G7 

head he had, how "Websterian he looked, and all that. He 
looked well enough, but not at all like a great man, intellect- 
ually, physically', or moralh'. His presence bore no resem- 
blance whatever to that of Webster. He was a chunk}- man, 
and looked like a prize-fighter ; though I am not sure as his 
arms were long enough for that. He had excellent prize- 
fighting qualities, — pluck, quickness, and strength; adroit- 
ness in shifting his positions, avoiding his adversar3^'s blows, 
and hitting him in unexpected places in return. His logical 
power was not great, like Calhoun's ; nor his power of state- 
ment, like "Webster's ; nor his range of acquirements, like 
John Quincy Adams's ; nor his eloquence, like Choate's and 
Phillips's : but he was a pluck}*, hard, unscrupulous, con- 
scienceless fellow, who was a hard man to meet in debate, 
and would, to the superficial observer, seem to win a victory, 
or to hold his own well against superior men. He made the 
common mistake of over-estimating the importance of his 
specialit}-, — squatter sovereignt}-. This will not bear exam- 
ination for a moment. Tlie onl}' way he contrived to defend 
it against the interventionists for slaver}' and tlie intervention- 
ists for freedom was by a series of dodges and contradictions, 
which the unlearned had not shrewdness enough to detect, and 
which the well-posted would not take the trouble to expose. 
His strong point was his will to have his own way, and his 
resistance to the demands of the three hundred and forty- 
seven thousand slaveholders, more or less, who had deter- 
mined that no man should politically live in this country 
who would not do their bidding. He represented many bad 
elements in our politics ; but, for this one service he has 
rendered, he deserves to be gratefully remembered. 

There is something very melancholy in the event of Sena- 
tor Douglas's death. A year ago, the observer would say no 
man in this country had greater vitality than Douglas ; more 
dogged pertinacity and determination, like that of Rodin in 
" The Wandering Jew," to live at all hazards. Yet he has 
gone, and a brief newspaper biography is all that we see. 



4 G8 " WARRING TON: " 

It seems a hard tiling to sa}' ; but Douglas's fault was a lack 
of conscience, and of an appreciation of conscience in the 
people. He had independence, hearty "Western qualities 
which made him popular with the people, and ''genuine old 
Teutonic pluck : " but he could not see (what a true Demo- 
crat necessarily' sees) that the people of the free parts of 
the United States believe in freedom and democracy ; and, 
sooner or later, they will come up to the requirements of 
freedom and democracy. His failure does not consist in not 
being President ; for Buchanan made the most miserable 
failure of an}' public man since Aaron Burr. He deserves, 
indeed, grateful recollection for breaking up the Democratic 
party, and precipitating the free States into the rebellion 
against the slave-drivers, which they are now waging so suc- 
cessfuUv. Among the instruments in the hands of God for 
breaking down the intolerable t^Tann}' which ruled, some- 
times through him, and at last over him, and all the rest of 
us, he was one of the greatest. And let him be honored for 
this, — that his last illness was caused by efforts in behalf of 
the government of his countrj-. The lesson of his life is not 
so sad as that of Webster. 



[1843-18G0.] 
FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 

Frederick Douglass is a man of a high order. He was once 
a slave, having escaped four or five years ago. "I am one 
of the things of the South," said he ; and drawing himself 
up to his full height, and spreading his arms wide, he ex- 
claimed, ^'■Behold the thing!" Douglass is not merel}' a 
story-teller : he can speak of the workings of the slave-sys- 
tem from observation. But that is not all : he is a man of 
strong mind, of quick thought, and, at times, eloquent. In 
his speeches are occasionally passages of great power. 

One evening he gave a sermon in imitation of those 
preached to the slaves at the South, taking for a text the 
words, " Servants, obey your masters." His sermon was 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 469 

just such a one as we should suppose would be preached 
where slavery exists, and where the master patronizes 
religious teachers for his slaves, priucipall}- for the sake of 
keeping those " things" in order. As some Southern man 
said, " They must have religion enough to keep them from 
cutting their masters' throats." 

In Frederick Douglass and George Latimer the people of 
the North have a specimen of the serfs of the South, — the 
hewers of wood and drawers of water for the chivalry par 
excellence of this republic. We fanc}^ people will soon 
become divested of tlie idea that slaver}' is the natural and 
proper position of such men as these ; and the}' will clamor 
louder and louder for their release from bondage, and the 
recognition of their rights. Douglass lost caste a little 
among the Boston abolitionists because he refused to follow 
Mr. Garrison in his crusade against the Constitution : and 
his great speeches made here on the antislaver}' platform 
were not as fully reported as they ought to have been ; at 
any rate, I can find only a few of them. He delivered 
one in New York, in 1853, before the American and For- 
eign Antislavery Society, — an organization of which Arthur 
Tappan was president, — which is full of the most stirring 
eloquence. 

" We plead for our rights," said he, " in the name of the 
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence ; and we 
are answered by our countrymen with imprecations and curses. 
In the sacred name of Jesus we beg for mere}' ; and the slave- 
whip, red with blood, cracks over us in mocker^'. We invoke 
the aid of the ministers of Ilim who came to preach deliver- 
ance to the captives, and to set at liberty them that are 
bound ; and from the loftiest summits of this ministr}- comes 
the inhuman and blasphemous response, that, if one i)rayer 
would move the almight}- arm in mere}' to break our gall- 
ing chains, that pra3er would be Avithheld. We cry for help 
to huraanit}', — a common humanity ; and here, too, we are 
repulsed. American humanity hates us, scorns us, disowns 
and denies our personality. The outspread wing of Ameri- 



470 "WARIilNGTON:" 

can Christianitj' — apparent!}' broad enough to give shelter 
to a perishing world — refuses to cover us. To us its bones 
are brass, and its feathers iron. In running thither for shel- 
ter and succor, we have onl}' fled from a corrupt and selfish 
world to a hollow and hyi)Ocritical church, and, maj- I not 
add, from the agonies of earth to the flames of hell? " And 
then he went on to sa}^ that even this bitter language was less 
bitter than his experience. "I am alike familiar with the 
whip and chain of slaver}', and the lash and sting of public 
neglect an'l scorn : my back is marked with the one, antl my 
soul fretted with the other. My neck is galled with both 
yokes, — that imposed by one master, and that imposed by 
many masters. I was born a slave. Even before I made part 
of this breathing world, the scourge was plaited for my back, 
and the fetters were forged for my limbs. . . . Even now, 
while I speak, and you listen, the Mork of blood and sorrow 
goes on. There is not a day, not an hour in any day, not a 
minute in any hour of the day, that the blood of my people 
does not gush forth at the call of the scourge ; that the ten- 
derest ties in humanity are not sundered ; that parents are 
not torn from children, and husbands from their wives, for 
the convenience of those who gain fortunes by the blood of 
their souls." And again: "Suppose it were possible to 
put down this discussion, what would it avail the guilty 
slaveholder? If every antislavery tongue in the nation 
were silent, every antislavery organization dissolved, every 
antislavery press demolished, every antislavery periodical, 
paper, book, tract, pamphlet, were searched out, gathered 
together, burnt to ashes, and these ashes given to the four 
winds of heaven, still, still, the slaveholder could have no 
peace. In every pulsation of his heart, in every throb of his 
life, in the breeze that soothes, and the thunder that startles, 
wouUl l)e waked up an accuser whose language is, ' Thou art 
verily guilty concerning thy brother.' " 

This is a good specimen of the kind of eloquence which 
aroused the conscience of the people before the antislavery 
question got into politics, and abolition became the principle 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 471 

of hundreds of thousands of voting men. At the time this 
speech was made, there were sixtj^-four political antislavery 
newspapers in the country (twelve of which were in Massa- 
chusetts) , and onl}^ five papers representing what was popu- 
larly known as the " Garrisonian " party. So the move- 
ment had even then got far bc^-ond this last-iaamed sect. 
But the eloquence, which was " dog-cheap at the antislavery 
meetings," mostl}' came in the daj-s of Garrison and Phillips, 
and "Weld (Theodore) and Stanton, and George Thomp- 
son, and Burleigh, and Alvan Stewart, and that class, political 
and non-political. The most stirring and convincing call to 
repentance I heard in those days was from George Thomp- 
son, who spoke or preached in the old meeting-house in 
Concord; the text and burden of his discourse being, "O 
house of David, thus saith the Lord : Execute judgment in 
the morning., and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand 
of the oppressor, lest my fur^^ go out like fire, and burn that 
none can quench it, because of the evil of j'our doings." 



[1875.1 
HENKY L. DAWES. 

IMr. Dawes came to the legislature about twenty j'ears 
ago or more, a fluent and smart young Berkshire Whig ; but 
just about that time the Whig party was going out of power 
here, on account of demoraliaation brought about b}' Mr. 
Webster's proslavery course. He fought through, however, 
with Col. Schouler, Ezra Lincoln, Ilenr}' P. Fairbanks, and 
the others, and never got into such a frame of mind about 
Mr. Webster as Albert H. Nelson and some others did ; 
Judge Nelson allowing himself even to run for presidential 
elector on the Webster ticket, after Mr: Webster died. 

I do not remember particularl}- what Mr. Dawes did in 
the House : no doubt he took a part in putting through the 
antislaver}' resolutions (which had by that time, however, got 
to be rather stale), and in opposing the ten-hoiu- project, 
and other kindi'ed schemes, to trouble the Cotton Whigs. 



€ 



472 "WARRINGTON:" 

In the Constitutional Convention of 1853, he was in the 
same compau}' ; fluent, active, and voting with the "Whigs all 
the time. lie did not, however, fortunately for himself, get 
so cross as to lose his balance, and persist, till too late, in 
calling himself a "Whig ; and he was saved from joining the 
Know-Nothings ; so that he was willing, in 1855 and 1856, 
to join in tlie Republican movement. I speak more particu- 
larly of 1856 (because I do not remember about his course 
in 1855), when, under Julius Rockwell, the opponents of the 
Know-Nothings tried to oust Gov. Gardner, and were kept 
from doing so by the old Whig I'emnaut (who voted for 
Mr. S. II. Walle}), and by Wilson and Banks, who were so 
anxious to fix a treat}" on the Fremont matter, that they could 
not reform the State. How he voted in the Know-Nothing 
3'ear (1854) I do not know, but probably for Emor}' Wash- 
burn (AVhig), and in 1855 for Rockwell. In 1856, when 
cliosen to Congress, I do not know what he did on the gov- 
ernorship ; but he did a good thing in rescuing one congres- 
sional district, at any rate. 

Since 1856 the Republicans have had pretty clear sailing; 
and, although his district has often been close, the party drill, 
the exigencies of the protective-tariif swindle and humbug, 
and his own activity, have kept him in Congress, and in a 
steadily-gaining position. The worst thing I remember 
about him is a speech made in Berkshire during the days of 
reconstruction ; but this was no worse than a good many 
good Republicans made occasionalh'. I can call to mind the 
days when Gov. Andrew used to say that we were laying 
quite too much stress on political rights for the emancipated 
slave, and that, for one, he should be well satisfied by getting 
bis civil lights. I cannot remember what part Mr. Dawes 
took in the abortive compromise measures of 1861 : proba- 
bly he was not prominent. lie came to the eastern part of 
the State but seldom ; and this has been one of the secrets 
of his slow measure of success here. In Congress, it seems 
to me, he has been very useful. I don't believe that he has 
ever been bribed, or has bribed anybody else, except in that 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 473 

loose and indefinite sense wliicli does not convey any idea of 
personal dishonesty; viz., he has been a tariff man of the 
ultra sort, a "duly licensed follower" of that illogical but 
not necessaril3' dishonest band of robbers who believe in pro- 
tective tariffs. He ought to know better than this ; but is 
not Francis Bowen, a professor at Cambridge ? and was not 
Greeley, the leading Republican editor of the country up to 
1872? 

Of Mr. Dawes's recent controversies it is not necessary 
to speak. It is admitted, I believe, that he has been an 
economist in Congress. He has desired a place in the 
Senate, but has not tried for anybody's seat, — not Wilson's, 
till he was made Vice-President ; nor Sumner's, so long as 
Sumner lived. He was beaten by Boutwcll, and lately has 
ti'ied conclusions with Judge Hoar, and now has won the 
seat for six 3-ear3. The position of Mr. Dawes against 
Butler in 1871 — the first and most dangerous — was most 
creditable to him. He came from home promptly at the 
request of the unorganized leaders, said he would do what 
he could, and fulfilled his pledge by making the earliest 
stand, — a stand which, although he was beaten on the im- 
mediate question (as it was almost certain he would be), 
gave notice to Butler, and to all concerned, that there was to 
be a fight to the last against the Essex member of Congress. 
His services were invaluable ; and I saw no reason to doubt 
that they were inspired by a strong and sincere motive, not 
only to save the party from Butler, but the State from dis- 
grace. 

It is not conclusive against him that he is not so great a 
character as Sumner w'as. His weak points are, in practical 
political politics, out of Congress, and not in it. His stump- 
speeches are adroit ; and this is about all that can be said in 
their praise. The}' are not often xery candid, and never in- 
spired. He still believes in the party, — much more, indeed, 
than he does in Grant. I wish he would stop believing in or 
supporting either, and that he would begin his career on the 
4th of March, 187C, by becoming as independent of partisan- 



474 "WARRINGTON:" 

ship, caucuses, and nominations, as he knows he ought to 
be ; as independent as he generall}- is in legislative matters. 
On several occasions, Mr. Dawes has been talked of for 
governor; but except in 18G0, when the removal of Gov. 
Banks to Illinois seemed to make room for him, no strong 
effort was ever made in his behalf; and in that year the 
splendid antislavery reputation of John A. Andrew gave 
him tlie nomination, after a short and sharp struggle, l)y a 
large majorit}' in convention. Gov. Andrew's influence at 
"Wasliington on emancipation, and the emplo3'ment of colored 
soldiers, gave to the Commonwealth her " war-governor," 
and did a great deal towards changing the method and theory 
on which the war was carried on. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 475 



CHAPTER XVI. 

BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES (Continued). 

[1872.] 

HORACE GREELEY AND OTHER NEW-TORKERS. 

A MORE pitiful history was never told by pen of historian 
or novelist or poet than this of the break-up and wreck of 
the renowned editor. Not onl}- is hostility disarmed, but 
criticism is put at nought, by the sorrowful event, — sorrow- 
ful almost beyond precedent. I have heard stories of disaster 
falling upon whole families, — the death of a father, the mad- 
ness of a mother, and the iml)eeility, bankruptcy, criminality, 
of half a dozen sons and daughters, all happening, as it 
were, at once ; literally the whole catalogue of disasters 
falling within a year or two : and nothing short of such a 
household wreck as this seems comparable to this late event. 
It is sad enough. 

Poor Mr, Greeley ! Changing the point of view, is it any 
wonder, after all, that so great a power in politics and jour- 
nalism — in politics through journalism — for nearly fort^"" 
years should deem himself not onl}^ justified in seeking for 
the presidency, but should also deem himself the fittest man 
for it ; and not only that, but should labor under the further 
illusion, that the hundreds of thousands of voters who had 
been led b}' "The Tribune" into Republican politics, and 
had, under its inspiration, won Republican victories, state and 
national, would be eager to reward its editor with the high- 
est office in their gift? lie believed in these things. His old 
letters and editorial writings show that he felt himself neg- 



476 " WARRINGTON: " 

lected and unappreciated. The letter to Seward, as we now 
read it, is pathetic in its expression of sorrow and indigna- 
tion at being obliged to go back to his "garret" and his 
" crust," while inferior men — scoundrels or imbeciles — got 
comfortable places to which he felt himself equal and enti- 
tled. He had been alwa^-s unlucky in politics. A short 
time in Congress, a seat in the Constitutional Convention, in 
neither place getting much fame, or doing much useful work, 

— this was about all. 

Surrounded a good deal by scaly politicians, he had been, 
in fact, subdued b}' New-York politics. That wretched sj'S- 
tem of political ethics so peculiar to the Empire State, 
ever since the daN-s of Aaron Burr, clear down through the 
days of the Van Burens ; through the Bucktail, Clintonian, 
Barnburner, Locofoco, Tamman}-, Regenc}' eras, or b}' what- 
ever name each successive epoch of corrupt mcdiocrit}' has 
been called; every state and city administration a •' succes- 
sion of felonies ; " everj' court an engine of rascally routine ; 
every convention a scene of bargain and sale ; ever}' legis- 
lature a market, where senators and representatives were put 
up at auction ; every delegation sent to either branch of Con- 
gress full of weak or wicked men (one as bad as the other) , 

— this SAstem was too much for a man naturally- disposed 
to be a Paleyite and an expedientist. It is hard telling 
whether New York has been made so politically contempti- 
ble by its institutions, or b}' its men : both have acted upon 
the other. Its constitution of 184G, its legal code, its general 
system, were a departure from respectable principles of 
legislation and construction such as prevailed in New Eng- 
land, from the beginning, under the influence of men better 
trained iu the principles of civil libert}* ; and her people, at 
the same time, seem to have been ai)tl3' fitted by nature, tra- 
dition, and education, to submit to Avhatever blunders her 
jurists and constitution-makers fell into. 

Palfrej' the historian long ago commented upon her only 
great men, — Hamilton, " a waif from the "West Indies to her 
Bpirit-barren strand;" and Rufus King, au emigrant from 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 477 

Massachusetts ; and who besides ? Bryant and Leggett, 
great journalists, the first of Hampshire-count}' parentage ; 
Silas Wright, strong minded and bodied, but pretty much 
like Marc}' and the rest in all political attributes ; Michael 
Hoffman, a tradition ; Seward, Weed, Granger, Fillmore, 
and so on down to Fenton and Conkling, — Seward the great- 
est of the lot, and he a man of stratagem and machinery 
from the beginning to the end. Is it an}' wonder that Mr. 
Greeley was conquered b}' institutions and men like these ? 
So, while " The Tribune," fighting antislaver}- battles, pre- 
pared the country, more particularly the AVest, for the 
irrepressible conflict, — the millions who read it being out 
of reach of New- York influences, and open to all the vigor- 
ous teachings, the iterations and reiterations, j^ear after 3'ear, 
of its great editorial chief, — he was himself weakened and 
shorn b}' contact with the rascals of the convention and the 
committee-room ; and his paper, not re-enforced by a sturdy 
example of individual independence, and contempt for oflSce, 
such as Mr. Greeley might have set, furnished the curious 
spectacle of a great intellectual organ without an}' immedi- 
ate constituency ; New York City and State being for the 
last decade, on the average, more hopelessly on the wrong 
side than it was when the first number was issued. Clearly, 
New York was too strong for Mr. Greeley. A man so 
democratic b}' instinct and temperament, so open to sugges- 
tions of reform in his youth and early manhood, so kindly 
in his nature, so industrious, so incapable of fatigue, so 
accessible, so much, in fact, like America itself, in his free- 
dom from conventionality, his vigor, his enterprise, force, 
directness, and general style, could not have alighted upon 
so unpromising a place as New-York City. Elsewhere, to 
be sure, he would not, perhaps, have established so great a 
paper ; but almost anywhere else he would have been a hap- 
pier, better, and more useful man. 

It does not seem to me that he can properly be called a 
philanthropist or a reformer ; though he had, at times, the 
philanthi'opic and the reforming element. He neither loved 



478 "WA nniXG tox .- • ' 

the individual man, nor man in the aggregate, to an^- ex- 
traordinary- degree, lie was by no means a profound thinker 
on political or social subjects. At most, he was only willing 
to give such subjects a fair chance and fair play, and latterly 
not always even this ; and he loved himself too well to be 
Avilling to do much more for individuals than to turn them 
off with good advice, or to get rid of their importunity b}* 
gift or loan which he was too bus}' to den}- them. He had 
not that two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage which Napoleon 
said a great general must have, no real faith in ultimate 
results : but then he was not to blame for this ; for it was 
temperamental, in part. IIow could he help being disheart- 
ened by Bull Run.' IIow could he help being in despair 
when Harry Cla}' was defeated, as he thought, b}- frauds in 
Pennsylvania and Louisiana? And withal, with ihiTt shrink- 
ing from blood which has made liim and kept him (longer 
than it has kept him in any otlier direction) an enemy of 
the gallows, how could he help thinking to himself, after 
every great disaster during the civil war, "IIow long shall 
this last? — what can I do to stop it?" Did it not seem 
to nearl}' every man, at times, during the second, tliird, and 
fourtli 3ears of the war, that, as Mr. Greeley expressed it in 
a private letter, the administration of Mr. Lincoln was like 
that theological work of which the heading of one chapter 
was "Hell," and of the next, "Hell continued"? IIow 
man}' men, governors, senators, statesmen, were hurrying to 
Washington, month after month, to give "old Abe" the 
best advice, and then hurrying back to curse him for not 
taking it? 

Horace Greeley had a splendid funeral. The sad circum- 
stances of his death have softened all his enemies, and buried 
in afiliction all his friends ; so that there is a plausibility in 
the remark, that he is fortunate to get rid of life after such a 
sad ending to his political aspirations, such a tragedy in his 
family relations. But it seems to me the saddest death we 
ever had in the country-, a sheer and unmitigated disaster, 
black and tragical from the beginning to the end, and a piti- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 479 

ful, most pitiful story. If there is an}' thing more useful to 
be said about it, I cannot imagine what it is. 

Upon a man constituted like Mr. Greeley, abuse and 
praise which were unmerited and extraA^agant had just about 
the same effect, the one as the other ; and, now that he is 
dead, no allowance seems to be made — perhaps none can 
be made — for that common sense of the aggregate popula- 
tion which sifts all such criticism, and comes to a result 
pretty nearly correct. But " the pity of it, the pity of it ! " 
this all can agree to. Whether Hamlet was sane or insane, 
who can tell? but we all know that his life and his death 
were tragical. 

[1872.] 
PRES. GRANT. 

Pres. Grant is a dull creature, with apparently not the 
slightest idea of the office which he fills, except to have a good 
time while he keeps it, and, when he leaves it, to be comfort- 
abh' " well off," — he and his friends. From the moment 
when he nominated a New- York muck-rake for secretary of 
the treasur}', and recommended a repeal of the law 'of 
Washington's administration to allow him to be confirmed, 
down to this da}', he seems to have had no thought except 
to be "on his make." He is not bad, not dishonest per- 
sonall}', not ambitious, but simply unfit. His administra- 
tion will be illustrious in our annals for this unfitness, and 
for nothing else. 

It may be said that many of our Presidents have been 
unfit, and that great numbers of people have insisted that 
ever}' one of them, from Washington to Lincoln, has been 
so. True enough. Perhaps Grant's unfitness is not worse 
than the unfitness of others ; certainly it is not worse than 
that of Buchanan or Johnson this will be readily enough ; 
admitted. "The world spirit is a good swimmer; floods 
cannot drown him : " so is the national spirit. But, if 
we allow the unfit men to have eight years apiece, when 
shall we have a chance to begin on the fit ones ? We who 



480 " WARRINQTOX: " 

are fighting against Grant's renomination are, in fact, fight- 
ing the battle of capacit}- against medioerit}- everywhere, 
and the battle of thousands of Republicans who now go 
against us, and look upon Cincinnati with horror. For it 
needs no ghost from the grave to tell the average Republican, 
that, if Grant is rechosen, his second administration is 
likely to be, I will not sa^' worse than his first, l)ut one 
which will be hardly Republican even in name. Whatever 
happens in November, the part}' which attends the next 
inauguration ceremony will be neither Republican nor Demo- 
cratic, neither protective nor free-trade, neither reform nor 
re-actionary, neither State-rights nor ultra national, neither 
antislaver}' nor proslavery, neither radical nor conservative : 
it will be largely personal ; for this personal tendency is not 
to be got rid of by one struggle, an}- more than Tamman}-- 
ism was got rid of b}' a Republican victor}' in New York. 
We should be no better off with a new Republican candidate. 
That depends upon who he is. The thing which ought to be 
done is to discontinue personal government, and bring back 
political government. 

Grant has not the slightest comprehension of political 
government. His administration is a personal one. It is 
said that he has carried out Republican principles by sup- 
pressing the Ku-Klux, and prosecuting the bigamists of 
Utah. These are not Republican principles, nor an}- other 
principles. The Ku-Klux are suppressed only for the time 
being. So have been the suppressing measures of England 
in Ireland for the last hundred years, perhaps. That is to 
say, having begun by mismanagement and stupidity, and 
these having brought tumult and outrage, the government is 
compelled, for the sake of peace, to suppress the latter. 
Sooner or later, however, the work of pacification must 
begin. Martial law, throughout the two administrations of 
Grant, only postpones, for the sake of a growling and uncer- 
tain peace, the day of good-will eight years longer. In this 
point of view, the recent proceedings in South Carolina, 
though needful, are not statesmanship. The same may be 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 481 

said of the prosecutions in Utali : tliey onl}^, for the sake of 
airing our national virtue, postpone indefinitely the suppres- 
sion of the evil aud the scandal at Salt Lake. If this is 
Republican statesmanship, the less of it the better. 

I know there is apparently no great governmental issue. 
Tammanyism, a very indefinite term, is the most promis- 
ing one. If any man represents Tammanyism here, it is 
Butler. Pie organized cheating and corruption in his late 
canvass as it never was organized before in this State. Is 
the retention of Tom Murphy, by Boutwell's advice and 
consent, a sign that the President intends to make war on 
Tammanyism? Is there any indication of a purpose to re- 
move the office-holders from the control of members of Con- 
gress, and the members from the control of the office-holders? 
— the onl}' important feature of the civil-service reform ; any 
care taken, that when honest men die, or rogues run away 
from the Washington offices, their places shall be well filled? 
The trouble with Grant, in connection with our politics, 
is, that he is a weak man, and, like all weak men, is the 
prey of jealousies and intrigues, and cannot be trusted to do 
right, or to carr}' out the wishes of the mass of the part}-, 
without constant watching. Butler has nothing else to do 
but to watch him : other men have more congenial, if not 
more necessary, occupations. Who wants to send a senator, 
a representative, or a deputation, to Washington every month 
to keep the President from falling into the hands of Ben 
Butler ? It does not pay ; for, sooner or later, you will be 
caught napping. A President who has not instinct to see 
and know what Butler is, and what he wants, is not fit for 
his place. 

Grant wins politically, as he won his battles, b}'- sheer pi'e- 
ponderancy of the forces under him, and in spite of blun- 
ders and incapacity on all hands. He wins because the 
Democratic party has not 3'et been chastened b}' affliction to 
know wisdom, and because it is still too near "by a 3-ear or 
two to the close of the war for the people to forget its 
career. 



482 " WARRINGTON: " 

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON AND THE " GARRISONIANS." 

The influence of "the Garrisonians," so called, has 
always been overrated both b}' abolitionists and hunkers. 
Their strength la}- in their appeals to the conscience of the 
people, and their trenchant and generall}' impartial modes of 
dealing with religions and political bodies. But the}' were 
always limited bj- the foolish dogma — into which the}- were 
led by I\Ir. Garrison, but which Mr. Phillips was also re- 
sponsible for — relative to the necessaril}' proslaver}- character 
of the Constitution, and the duty of repudiating it, and of 
acting outside of politics. Though their judgment as to par- 
tics and churches was right, their whole method of dealing 
■with politics and religion was unphilosophical and absurd. 
Not they, but the political antislavcr}' men, have done the 
great work of reforming the opinion of the countr}' ; and the 
man who, away back of 1840, first cast a vote against the pro- 
slavcrv parties, came nearer to the root of the matter than 
Garrison or Phillips. 

The antislaver}' party of this State has exercised a great 
influence upon our politics, though it never alone carried 
elections. It never, indeed, cast a larger vote in any year 
than it did in 1848, when it first became formidable. I be- 
lieve Mr. Stephen C. Phillips received in that year some 
38,000 votes for governor, and the next year something less. 
Mr. Palfrey, who was the next candidate, fared no better. 
In 1852 Horace Mann's vote w-cnt up to near 37,000, leav- 
ing more than a hundred thousand against him. Gen. Wil- 
son himself next tried his luck, and received 29,000 out 
of 129,000 votes. Next 3-ear occurred the Know-Xolhing 
stampede ; and Wilson received 6,483 votes, and Judge 
Allen and scattering some 1,200 more. The next year 
(1855) was the first year of recovery from Know-Nothingism, 
and INIr. Rockwell received the old vote of 36,000. The 
j-ear 185G may be styled the year of acquiescence ; but, 
without organization, 5,G25 men voted for Josiah Quinc}', 
while Gardner received 92,000. In 1857 Gardner received 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 483 

37.000, and Banks 62,000. The Free-Soil party, though 
onh^ 36,000 strong, broke down and dispersed tlie great 
Whig part}' of Massacliusetts ; sent Mr. Webster into retire- 
ment ; laid upon the shelf a great number of Wliig politi- 
cians, — such as R. C. Winthrop, Mr. Hillard, and Otis P. 
Lord, — whei'e they arc likely to remain; disorganized the 
Democratic part}', and Vvithdrew from it the best men it had, 
such as Banks, Boutwell, and Knowlton ; elected Charles 
Sumner twice to the Senate, and Henry Wilson once ; and 
did much toward reforming the Constitution and the legisla- 
tion of the State. It did man}- things which were not justi- 
fiable ; but, on the whole, its record is one which it ma}' well 
be proud of 

The a)itislavery party never made any headway so long as 
it kept voting for Whigs and Democrats who answered 
their questions by letter in unexceptionable terras, and, 
after they were chosen to office, were obliged to "violate their 
pledges. It was only when they began to organize, and vote 
for men who did not need to give pledges, that the political 
machines began to crack and give way. The Free-Soil 
movement of 1848 was the most important one that over 
this country witnessed in its results ; but the first man who 
ever cast a Liberty-party vote was the wisest politician of 
his time, because he was the first man to see the inevitable 
future, and to do all in his power to prepare for and hasten 
it. Then, again, a great deal of the rightful and useful 
power of "the Garrisonians " was wasted. " Tlie Libera- 
tor," for various reasons not discreditable to Mr. Garrison, 
had but a small circulation; but "The Antislaveiy Stand- 
ard," which was always well edited, — that is, was always 
an interesting paper, — might have had a large circulation, 
and been ten times as useful as it was, if the organization 
had had any appreciation of the proper methods of agita- 
tion. But setting out with the idea that only a very small 
number of persons, at best, could have the right notions, 
the managers Avere content, apparently, to send " The Stand- 
ard " to abolitionists (and to public men, perhaps), without 
letting the people have it. 



484 " WARRING TON: " 

The Antislaver}' Society was not half so important a body 
as it pretended to be. All its consequence was derived from 
the personal character and power of individual members, 
— Mr. Garrison's dogmatic and domineering energy, Mr. 
Phillips's eloquence and unllinching truthfulness to the high- 
est idea of antislavory, Mr. Pillsbury's prophetic and mina- 
tory appeals to the wrath to come. It is doubtless true, tliat 
the political antislavery movement had its germ in the moral 
agitation of Garrison and his early followers ; but, without 
the political organization, slavery would to-day have been 
stronger than ever before. And it is especially mortifying 
to antislaver}' politicians to find these early abolitionists, as 
soon as the}' become politicians, taking the conservative side 
of all questions, and not only repudiating their old constitu- 
tional doctrines, but lowering the moral standard, by which 
only can a health}- political organization be kept up. 

Mr. Garrison is, by the antislavery politicians, reckoned, 
on the whole, the most politic man of his sect. He is uni- 
formly tolerant, sometimes more than just, towards the men 
who are in political life ; and now that, to use his epigram- 
matic but not quite satisfactory plea, "death and hell have 
seceded," and non-resistance is in abeyance, I shall expect 
to see him brought forward in his ward as a candidate for 
representative to the General Court, to begin with, and aftor- 
Tvards for something higher, if there is any thing higher, 
which I feel myself bound to doubt. Once in the legisla- 
ture, I should expect to see him one of the most conservative 
of members, feeling his way cautiously along, and checking 
the young, ardent, and radical men. After he gets a taste 
of public life, he may like to get into Congress ; and I would 
trust him to organize a ward as well as the best of the man- 
agers. After a term or two at Washington, and the attain- 
ment of a strong reputation as a safe man, he would do for a 
cabinet or diplomatic situation, and would finally come home 
to be the Nestor of his neighborhood, and die full of years 
and honors, and be borne to the tomb by twelve " principal 
citizens." 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 485 

J. Q. A. GRIFFIN. 

I knew Mr. Griffin before 18-18 ; I think, when he was in 
George F. Farlc^-'s office at Groton. He used to write for 
"The Lowell Journal" occasionally; having, even then, a 
capital newspaper style, an admirable humor, and a penchant 
for "pitching in," which came often in play upon the dul- 
lards and fogies of the time. He left the Whigs in 1848, 
with some others (Mr. Farley among the rest), and ever 
afterwards was a radical of the radicals. He soon came 
down to Cbarlestown, where he opened an office, and rapidly 
sot into a arood business. He was chosen to the Know- 
Nothing legislature of 1855 ; not, I am glad to say, out of 
an}- love on his part for that school of politics, but because 
the people of Charlestown had an annexation question on 
their hands, which they urged him to attend to ; and because, 
also, there was a growing apprehension, on the part of some 
of the leaders, that their prejudices against lawyers were 
carrj'ing them so far, that the}^ were likely to be poorly off 
for legislative talent in the House. 

I did not see much of the legislature of 1855, being 
engaged in blackguarding it from the outside; but "the 
brethren of the m3'stic tie" remember to this da}- how Mr. 
Griffin drove Joe Hiss out of the House, and broke down all 
the apologies for him and for his school. From that day, at 
least, he gave the Know-Nothings no mercy, and he received 
as little from them. I remember a scene at "Worcester, when 
some of the worst of them tried to interrupt and put him down 
while speaking to the Republicans in caucus or convention. 
Of course, they only tried ; for I do not remember that any 
man ever got the advantage of him in debate. His powers 
of sarcasm were quite unequalled in this region. His pres- 
ence of mind was unfailing ; his argumentative powers equal 
to almost any emergency ; his reading extensive, and from 
the best authors ; and his aptness in applying the results of 
it was surprising to friends and enemies. He most conspicu- 
ousl}' showed his skill in political debate in the contest with 



486 "WARRINGTON:" 

Mr. Dana at "Worcester in 18G2, and justified the sagacity 
which selected him for chairman of the Committee on Resolu- 
tions, with the knowledge that the contest over Mr. Sumner's 
nomination would be a warm, and might be a doubtful one. 
Mr. Dana never showed greater coolness and adroitness, not 
even in that celebrated triumph of mind over matter, — his 
contest with A. 0. Brewster in the convention of 1S5.3 ; but 
Mr. Griilin showed himself to be fully his equal. To be 
sure, the majority was with him ; but it needed just his skill 
and courage to rally it, and make it victorious over the well- 
planned attack of the district-attornc}'. The blunders of 
1861 were then retrieved ; and the Republicans of Massa- 
chusetts have been, perha])s, too strong ever since. 

Mr. Griffin represented Maiden in 18.VJ and 1800; and in 
1859 occurred the contest over his seat, which resulted so 
uncxpcctedl}' in his being allowed to retain it against the 
report of the Committee of Inquiry, and the opinion of all 
or most of the law^'ers. In the interval between the regidar 
and the extra session, he had taken the office of clerk of the 
courts, but, becoming tired of it, resigned, and came back 
to his seat at the extra session. The question was, whether 
his seat had become vacant by his accepting the office. The 
House permitted him to remain ; but with all my friendli- 
ness towards him, and my natural contempt for precedents, 
and, moreover, with due regard to the shrewd points which 
he raised in his own defence, I have never been fully con- 
vinced that the House was not somewhat m3'stified and led 
astray by his superior skill in the debate over his antago- 
nists. I presume no case like it will arise for a centur}' to 
come : so no great harm was done, even if the decision was 
wrong. 

I did not often see Mr. Griffin in the courts. He had a 
large practice, and worked immensely in ill-ventilated court- 
rooms, to the ruin of his health, never very good and strong. 
He was independent in his bearing towards the judges, and 
was accustomed to sa}' that the Supreme Court never treated 
him so well as they did after he defeated the bill to increase 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 487 

their salaries. In his bearing with all men, indeed, he was 
independent and self-sustaining. It used to be said of him, 
that he loved intellectual fence and hard hitting so well, that 
he would hit a friend, if a foe did not appear at the right 
time ; and this reputation, whether well merited or not, 
doubtless injured his prospects whenever he became a candi- 
date for office. He had none of the arts of the demagogue ; 
and, when the eight-hour men called on him (he being a 
candidate for the nomination to Congress) to ask him as to 
his views on that subject, he cooll}' and sarcasticall}- ex- 
pressed his surprise. "Eight hours!" said he: " wh}^, I 
never thought of being for more than seven." Neither had 
he what are generally called popular manners. He did not go 
much to dinners or to public places, except with his family, 
to whom I ma}' say, as my crowning tribute to his worth, he 
was fondly and devotedl}' attached. As a man and a citizen, 
he was above reproach ; faithful in all the relations of life, 
public and private. He died consciously, peacefully, and un- 
regretfulh', testifying to the sufficienc}' of character, and the 
public and private virtues, to bring a man safely and tri- 
umphantly through the last ordeal. 

[Feb 26, 1876.] 
DR. SAMUEL G. HOWE. 

I doubt whether a more useful man, outside of those who 
filled high public station, ever lived in the State ; surely no 
one in recent 3'ears. To group our public men a little diifer- 
ently from usual, he belonged to tliat class of politician and 
philanthropist combined which included Horace Mann, .John 
A. Andrew, and Robert Rantoul, jun., and Mr. Sumner 
himself in the earl}- part of his career. He was the best 
combination I know of both characters. Ilis philanthropy 
was tempered b}' a strong tendency and immense good sense 
in the line of governing, albeit he was quite enough of a 
filibuster and a liberator for a man over seventy 3'ears old. 

Mr. Mann was om- great reformer in educational afi'airs ; 



488 "WARRINGTOy: " 

and Dr. Howe, against a good deal of Boston opposition, 
placed a statue of Mann in the j^ard of the State House, 
•where he and Mr. "Webster {captatores verhorum) stand, as 
it were, criticising one another.^ Mr. Rantoul was the 
strongest man in opposition to capital punishment ; but his 
politics would not, till just before he died, allow him to get 
into Congress. Sumner took up the prison and peace ques- 
tions. I do not here speak of Garrison and Phillips, who 
were not in partisan politics ; or of the great Dr. Channing 
and Theodore Parker, whose lives were mainl}- devoted to a 
reform in theology. Howe was the friend of the liberal side 
in all these questions. 

The}' say ever}' man has his "conservative " side, meaning 
not to quibble, l)ut b}- this word meaning sluggish and back- 
ward. Dr. Howe was not so on any of these questions. 
Equally well balanced was he upon all. He was not a poet, 
like Whittier ; but would ver}' likeh' have been one of Dr. 
Channing' s or Mr. Buckminster's first men, if he had not 
been a liberator in Greece or Poland. I called him a useful 
man ; but he was not, therefore, a dull man. The companion 
of those men, and of Emerson, Holmes, Judge Hoar, Lowell, 
Appleton, and George T. Davis, could hardly be that ; and, 
in point of fact, he was livel}', and full of anecdote, seeing 
the unfitness as well as the fitness of things (which I will 
fling at you as a definition of wit and sense together) ; and I 
count it no small compliment that he often left the club 
styled the "Atlantic," and came back to the "Bh'd," in the 
middle of the afternoon. He was always straightforward 
and to the point, and never eloquent or eloquential. It must 
have been in 1<S4G that he ran for Congress, saying in his 
letter that he might as well " fill a ditch " as anybody. This 
was in the patriotic days of the Mexican war. . 

Dr. Howe was the famous benefactor of the blind, and in 
his early life went to Greece, and fought bravely in the 



1 " "SVarriugtou " called "Webster's statue, at the time it was put up, 
" the statue of tlie defender of the Fugitive-slave Law." 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 489 

revolution. I mention these things for the sake of intro- 
ducing an exquisite but unconscious pun made hy the Hon. 
Tom Motley of Boston. He was asked to vote for Dr. 
Howe, when nominated as the Free-Soil candidate for Con- 
gress against Mr. Winthrop. " Who is Dr. Howe? " asked 
Motle}-. " The celebrated philanthropist," was the answer. 
" Celebrated Phil-/<eW-enist ! " was the contemptuous repl}'. 
Dr. Howe had got to what they call a good old age. He, if 
an^'bod}', could afford to refrain from saying with Emerson, 
in his "Letters and Social Aims," " Our passions, our en- 
deavors, have something ridiculous and mocking. If not to 
be, how like the bells of a fool is the trump of fame ! " He 
had been complaining for a long time of decaying health. 
He had studied medicine, but had little faith in it. I think 
he very greatly lamented his decay, and had felt, though 
perhaps not quoted, Scott's lines : — 

"Alas ! the warped and broken board, 

How can it bear the painter's dye? 
The harp of strained and tuneless chord, 

How to the minstrel's skill reply? 
To aching eyes each landscape lowers; 

To feverish pulse each gale blows chill; 
And Araby's or Eden's bowers 

Were barren as this moorland hill." 

Dr. Howe was one of the editors of " The Daily Common- 
wealth," which Mr. Bird, Mr. Alley, Mr. Downer, and 
others, had at different times the control of. Mr. Joseph 
Lj^man and Mr. Charles List were, at times, editing this 
paper. Probabl}' Howe had not much time to write for this 
paper, which was the mainstay of the coalition in Boston, 
and a good deal under tlie management of Robert Carter. 
This was long after the days of " The Boston Dail}- Repub- 
lican," which, in its turn, was the successor of "The Daily 
Whig" of 1848, which the writer of this edited. This 
" Daih- Commonwealth " was a ver}' smart sheet while Howe, 
Bird, AUo}-, Downer, and that set, had charge of it. But they 
were all busy men in other lines. Dr. Howe always insisted 



490 "WAIiRINGTON:" 

that there was no reply to the arguraeut for equal suffrage 
without regard to sex, as well as without regard to race or 
color: in fact, on all questions of equalit}', he "hewed to 
the line," whether too busj- or not to take active hold or not. 
He was a thorough democrat in the true sense, as well as a 
genuine philanthropist, a hero, a gentleman, and an agreea- 
ble companion. I suppose he was well off in respect of 
property ; rich was he, at any rate, after Carlyle's definition : 
'• The wealth of a man consists in the number of things he 
loves and blesses, the number of tilings he is loved and 
blessed by." 

E. KOCKWOOD HOAR. 

The trouble with Judge Hoar is, that he has contracted the 
apparentl}' incurable habit of " putting himself upon his 
dignity." We doubt if it was ever true, even in the da3-s of 
Caleb Strong or George Cabot, that men were put into high 
office who refused to say whether they would take it or not. 
At any rate, the da}- is now past for any such pretensions 
and affectations. No man can be governor, except by acci- 
dent, who does not say to his friends, '• I will take the oflice, 
and you maj* do what you can for me." And no mnn ought 
to be. As a general thing, 3-our men who adopt the high tone 
are no better than their neighbors, and no less desirous to 
hold office. It is the new-departure men in the Repuljlican 
party who are talking of Judge Hoar ; but there is really not 
a more strict party man in New England than the judge. 
And as for his attitude towards the administration which dis- 
charged him, — why, he has done nothing but puff Gen. Grant 
since he left the cabinet. He would make a strong governor, 
but, in all probability, a very temporary one. Judge Hoar did 
excellent service at Washington against that S3'stem of con- 
gressional interference, under which it becomes necessary to 
consult A, B, and C of the 1st, 2d, and 3d Districts, before 
the collector can appoint a clerk, or the postmaster-general 
a postmaster. But he got tired of the warfare, or the con- 
gressmen were too strong for him. The best statement of 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 491 

true doctrine that I remember from the bench may be found 
in a charge delivered hy Judge Hoar to the grand jury, 
where he brought to their attention the proceedings of the 
military power soon after the rendition of Burns. Judge 
Hoar said, — 

" It has beeu said sometimes, and in some places, that there are 
laws which it is the duty of citizens to disobey or resist. I have no 
doubt, gentlemen, and I suppose none of you have any doubt, that a 
law may be enacted by a republican government, as well as an order 
passed by a despot, which may be in itself wicked ; and if any stat- 
ute is passed which any citizen — examining his duty by the best light 
God has given him, and acting conscientiously and uprightly — be- 
lieves to be wicked, and which, acting by the law of God, he thinks 
lie ought to disobey, unquesilonahbj he owjht to disobey that statute, 
because he owjht to obey God rather than man. I suppose that any man 
who would seriously deny that there is any thiny hir/her than human 
law must ultimately deny even the existence of a Most High." 

GEORGE F. HOAR. 

George F. Hoar and his brother the judge are very differ- 
ent men, though resembling each other in some particulars ; 
principall}' in having been born in the same house, and edu- 
cated at the same college. Judge Hoar is temperamentall}^ 
opposed to all demagogism and partisanship : so is George 
F. ; but the latter has a streak of radicalism, for instance, on 
the subject of woman-suffrage. How happens it that even 
the youngest of this conservative famil}' is so utterly lost to 
a sense of what is due to proprietj^? The secret is soon 
told. He was fitted for college hy a woman, Mrs. Iliple}^ of 
Concord. Chief Justice Chapman, if he had had the train- 
ing of him, might iiot have got him in such good condition 
for the university ; but he would have taken better care of 
his political morals. But there is no use, probably, in try- 
ing to go back. 

He also believes in labor-reform, which makes him re- 
semble, in a sort, Butler himself, but which excites a 
smile of contempt in the judge, or a shrug of disgust. Then 
the jounger has not 3et outgrown the intense partisanship of 
his 3-outh and the combativeness of the bar, and it is very 



492 "WARRINGTON:" 

likel}' never will. It is not probable that bis temperament, 
his education, or his family history and traditions, will ever 
allow him to reall}' like Butler : yet the resembling traits 
between the two will keep them on good terras, as the}' were 
in the State Convention of 1871, in spite of the opposite 
impressions of such political greenhorns as that Harvard- 
college professor who went to the New-England dinner in 
1872, and claimed for the two brothers the credit of killing 
Butler ; while only the elder, as we know, had any thing to 
do with it, or any sympathy with the enterprise. 

[Feb. 'IG, 1«7U.] 
REV. GILBERT HAVEN. 

I called to see Gilbert Haven about the day the echoes of 
his speech began to get back here at his home.^ "There's 
the What's-its-name," said he. pitching across the table at 
me the Christian something which does duty as a sentinel 
on some inner wall of the Methodist Zion. " Thcv say at the 
office (i.e., in Bromfield Street) that my speech is making a 
great row." I helped him find the criticism he had brought 
with him ; but it was some time before I could remember 
what he had said to occasion such a tumult. He and I have 
been "Grant men" for two or three years, with this differ- 
ence, — that, while I have been rather surer than he is that 
Grant is " the strongest Republican," he has been a good 
deal surer than 1 that it would be fit and decent to clioose 
him. This Grant talk of his has been so common when he 
has been at homo, that nobody paid much attention to it: 
and I really believe that he derived mucli comfort from my 
opinion that Grant means to get the nomination, will not be 
put off, can not be put off; and that it is "Grant, or a Demo- 
crat." The Methodist ministers, who meet him on Monday, 
think Haven a great politician, because he is enthusiastic, 
and gives them a sort of a reason for what they want to 

1 A political speech, in which the bishop advocated a third term for 
Pres. Grant. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 493 

believe. Haven is " a Grant man" because the black man 
is for Grant. He believes in tlie negro, not in Grant ; as 
Gov. Andrew's antislaver}- character came out of his fond- 
ness for exceptional!}' unlucky races. "I never despised 
an}' man," said Andrew, with that high pitch on the word 
"an}-," making it sound like anny, — " any man because 
he was poor, or because he was ignorant, or because he was 
black." 

These Methodist meetings in Boston generally excite little 
or no interest. They afford a chance for the clergy to come 
in, just before and after election, and excuse themselves for 
not reporting at the polls for duty on the Prohibitory Law. 
"Why," said Haven, "I did not vote for Grant myself in 
'72." — "Who did you vote for, for HeaA'cn's sake? " — "I? 
I voted for Black and Russell!" — "And who were Black 
and Russell?" — "Prohibition candidates." You see, he 
could not quite make up his mind, as a temperance man, to go 
for Grant, and so went for Black and Russell ; though I do 
not remember that those eminent citizens had even an elec- 
toral ticket in Massachusetts. And Grant was safe enough 
here. When Haven went South as a bishop, he became 
more and more, of course, a Grant man, and more and more 
a Methodist organizer. He wants to protect the negro from 
the white man, and he wants to build up the Methodist- 
Episcopal Church against the Catholics ; though I do not 
think he cares about the school-question very much, believing 
in the Church quite as much as in the Bible ; feeling, proba- 
bly, — as a man does who reads the magazines and news- 
papers and modern books, and who hears everybody talk, 
— that it is the spectacular and emotional which must make 
Christianity a continued success, rather than a reliance upon 
a book which Huxley and Spencer are nibbling the leaves 
out of all the time. The negro, and especially the Methodist 
negro, must be taken care of. He must be recognized. I 
have a letter from him to Gov. Andrew, asking the governor 
to help elect Rev. Mr. Grimes to a chaplaincy in the legisla- 
ture. The governor indorsed it over to me with a request 



494 "WARRINGTON: " 

that I would help to get votes for Mr. Grimes.' I suppose 
there is a time when it seems so necessary to strike a strong 
blow at an absurd prejudice, that it may be a good thing to 
infringe upon what would seem the true rule; viz., to vote 
for the man who can best interpret to the Almighty the 
devotional feelings of those who conceive themselves to be 
praying wlien the Lord is addressed in their names. Doubt- 
less Mr. Grimes, who was an excellent man, would have 
made as good a chaplain as the man avIio was chosen, who- 
ever he was. 

I trust that Haven will not be harmed on account of those 
speeches, and do not think he will be, lie must be liked 
at the South, on the Avhole : I know he must be by those 
who know liim ; and that is near]}' everybody. He knows 
everybody, — Tilton and Beecher equall}' well. He is as 
strict a marriage man as Greclej'was, but implicitly believes, 
that, if the white man and black woman desire to intcrmany, 
the State should not interfere. Mr. Nordhoff (of "The 
Nation") is altogether wrong when he saj-s that Haven's 
"most cherished possessions are prejudices." The bishop's 

1 Boston, Jan. 2, 18C4. 
Dr.Aii Sill, —Many friends of Rev. I^Ir. Grimes are anxious that he 
should be apjiointed the cliaplain of the House of Representatives the 
coming session. Judge Russell and other eminent friends of the cause 
are interested in the matter. It is not only a right step in the right 
direction, but it gives honor and aid to a most worthy ami faithful 
friend of the war and the Union ; and, far from least, will greatly aid the 
business of volunteering among our colored friends. I trust that j-on 
can find it consistent with your othcial relations to that body to assist 
in securing his election, as I am assured it will be agreeable to your 
feelings and your judgment to have it successful. 
Very respectfully yours, 

G. IIA^-EN. 
Gov. Andrew. 

Commonwealth of ^Iassachusktts, ExECUTrvE Depahtment, 

Boston, Jan. 5, 1804. 
My dear Rorinson, — I should think Mr. Grimes might bo elected 
senate chaplain with ease. Only few persons need to be spoken to. It 
ought to be done, 1 think. Who can best start the movement? 
Yours truly, 

J. A. Andrew. 



PEN--PORTRAITS. 495 

prejudices are very slight and very few, — fewer and slighter 
than they ought to be ; for I suppose a prejudice, easily 
overcome when real judgment approaches, and proves the 
stronger, is a valuable quality. 1 got information or surmise 
as to the Brooklyn scandal from him long before Mrs. Wood- 
hull made her invincible statem^ent ; and now it is no wonder 
that he tells Mr. Blackwell, that, if Mr. Beecher makes his 
appeai'ance as a "suffragist" on the platform, he (Haven) 
steps off. The bishop's head is level on one of the "miscege- 
nation " questions, however it maybe on the others. The 
bishop cannot stand every thing ; and he knows that even 
now the joints of the Church Universal are beginning to 
crack under the load Plj-mouth Church insists it shall take 
on board. lie would prefer to have Grant a teetotaler, or a 
prohibitionist, which is better yet in the estimation of all 
sound temperance men ; but the negro must be protected, 
especially the church-going, Methodist negro. JVot that 
Haven is, when you get close to him, a strict dodrinare ; 
for he mixes very judiciously worldliness with other worldli- 
ness. 

He relishes Emerson; saj's "Brahma" is one of the 
greatest of poems, and that the first volume of Essaj's, 
and the first volume of Poems, are the finest fruits of Ameri- 
can genius ; and calls to see the Concord seer when he is in 
the neighborhood. When ver^' pious, or very drows}-, or very 
repentant, he might take up Pollok or Young or Bicker- 
staff, but not till then. Ordinarily, he would read Green's 
"History of the People of England," or "The Vicar of 
Wakefield," or "Eothen," or Elia, or Hawthorne, before 
an}- such "poetry-" as the other. No man within the last 
twelve or fifteen j'ears, I think, has grown in ability and 
power more than Gilbert Haven ; and, if he has good for- 
tune, he will live and grow many, many years. His mother 
is nov»- living in this town (Maiden), at the age of eighty- 
eight. His father (Gilbert) was a leading Methodist of this 
section till his death ; and 7ie was a brother of Franklin 
Haven, financial friend of Webster, to whom the latter 



496 "WARRINGTON:" 

intrusted that great politico-economical maxim, that "no 
man could hold a cabinet-office in Washington, unless he 
were rich, or a bachelor : " whereupon the pockets of State 
Street Avere opened to Mr. "Webster. The bishop is a 
widower with two children ; his wife having been dead 
eighteen years, more or less. He writes rapidly and care- 
lessly, and incurs the hostility of the critics for occasional 
clumsiness and inaccurac}', but is too " spr}^ " for forms. A 
royal good fellow. May he live long, and prosper ! 

[March 8, 1876.] 
CHARLES C. HAZEWELL AND THE OLD EDITORS.^ 

Charles C. Ilazewell's " Review of the Year," in "The 
Travcllor," is an astonishing piece of work. The bits of au- 
tobiography' which he puts into his reviews arc, to mc, their 
most interesting features. He is almost as frank as Rous- 
seau, but has no such unhandsome confessions to make. For 
a man who relies almost entireh' on the newspapers for the 
news, he is well informed- as to what is going on in Boston ; 
while as to the past, and as to all which books tell, ho has 
no equal hereabouts. I wish he would make an estimate of 
the number of columns he has written, — more, 1 suspect, 
than any other American editor. Mr. Hazewell is a Provi- 
dence man, and came to Boston as a compositor, and worked 
on Ilallet's old " Dail}' Advocate." He afterwards edited 
"The Nantucket Islander" (or "I Slander," as Sara II. 
Jenks, publisher of the rival "Inquirer," used to call it), 
and then " The Concord Freeman," and then " The Boston 
Times," for many years. In 1846 he Avent to Ohio, and 
edited "The Ohio Statesman." While there, he and his 
brother published one number of " The Western Review," 
containing nine long articles on a variety of subjects, every 
one of which was written by himself. 

Isaac W. Frye, who died in Boston not long ago, was 

1 This sketch contains the last of " Warringtou's" writings. A part 
of it was published after his death. 



PEW-PORTBAITS. 497 

about the oldest man connected with the press actively in the 
State. There are left Col. Greene, Mr. Hazewell, Mr. Att- 
will, Mr. Pnrd}' of the land commission, and perhaps others, 
and some older than either of these. The religious papers, 
possibly, have some; for example, Mr. Punchard of "The 
Traveller." George Bradburn, an old journalist (and one 
of the sharpest), was in the legislature with Winthrop, 
Samuel C. xVllen, Rantoul, Frank Dexter, and that set, and 
took a leading part in repealing the anti-amalgamation law. 
He was thus obliged to come into contact with Franklin 
Dexter, a leader of the Boston "Whigs, a handsome though 
dark man, who suffered a good deal from " colliding " with 
Bradburn. Possibly I ought to have mentioned Gen. Banks 
as once an editor ; but I guess not. He once had a small 
paper in Woburn. Gov. Bullock once edited " The -^gis." 
C. W. Palfrey of " The Salem Register " is one of the oldest 
and steadiest. And we had in the office of " The Lowell 
Courier" a file of David Lee Child's "Massachusetts 
Journal" of about 1822. Mr. Child died lately; but Mrs. 
Child still writes for the press. It would have been inexcu- 
sable to omit Mr. Foote of " The Salem Gazette ; " but his 
youthful looks and courtly way rather exclude the idea that 
he is one of the old editors. Dr. Palfrey is about eight}' ; 
but, whether h'e had installation as editor when young, I do 
not know. I am glad there are so many of the old fellows 
left. Dr. Loring was once a reporter for " The Daily 
Advertiser " at the legislature. And, lo ! here is refer- 
ence made to Capt. Sleeper of " The Boston Journal." 
Stockwell and Clapp of the same paper, and Delano God- 
dard of "The Advertiser," are coming along fast. Dr. 
Howe jointly edited the (old) " Dvaly Commonwealth " over 
twenty j-ears ago ; and it is twenty -five years since Elizur 
Wright, styled by Charles A. Dana "the best paragraph- 
ist," started "The Chronotype," which Dana worked on. 
Elizur is a successful man of business, and the same hard- 
headed, and perfectl}' honest, non-mystical old radical as 
ever. 



498 " WARRINGTON: " 

One might write all da}- about newspaper-men ; for It is a 
universal rule for public men to write for the press. The 
"Brutuses," and the " Phocions," and the " Ilonestuses," 
of old times, no doubt used to crack their jokes, air their 
rhetoric, and instruct the people. Charles Austin, a son of 
"Honestus" (Benjamin Austin's newspaper name, I believe), 
got shot b}- Selfridge. How could I forget Mr. Garrison, and 
Mr. Wheildon of the old "Bunker-hill Aurora," still busj', 
and living in Concord? Among the old editors, I forgot Wil- 
liam ria3den and Thomas M. Brewer of " The Atlas." Mr. 
Ilayden lives in Maiden, and is over eighty 3-ears old. He 
was a reporter in "Washington for "The Intelligencer" as 
long ago as 1822 ; returned to Boston ; and in 1841, he, with 
Dr. Brewer, took "The Atlas." I believe he is in good 
health. He is a Lincoln^ man. Another Lincoln man, 
George F. Bemis, left journalis/n thirt}- 3-ears ago or so, has 
got rich since, and is now well, and enjoying life. Dr. 
Brewer was, as we all remember, aAVashington letter-writer. 
I don't suppose any paper ever xi'o.s quite so enthusiastically 
received as "The Atlas " by the partisan of the old school, 
who was a yer3- good and useful man before the days of "per- 
sonal government" and of caucus-packing. Houghton was 
considered a wonder ; and there were dim hints about Richard 
Hildreth, a writer for the press, who was indeed a most 
remarkable turner-off of work, — writing a little finical 
hand, but any quantit3' of it, and Avith great rapidit3-, — at 
least when I knew him, in 1854. " Ornament his sword 
had none, but the notches on the blade." Alfred Turner 
also turned oflf work well on " The Atlas." 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

I suppose there is no doubt of the accuracy of the story 
of Lincoln's early history. It is stranger than fiction. I 
hardly know any narrative better told, or more curious in 
itself, considering the after-life of the subject. There is a 

1 Bom in Lincoln, Mass. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 499 

little too much Ilernclon, perhaps ; but, after all. we arc inter- 
ested a little in knowing a man who knew Lincoln so well, and 
who thinks he guided Lincoln to his great destiu}- ; though it 
seems probable, that, after a while, Lincoln might have hu- 
mored his A'anit}' a little, rather than followed his leading. 
Although (as C. C. Ilazewell once said) Wilkes Booth's 
bullet has made it forever impossible to tell the whole truth 
about Mr. Lincoln, it is clear enough that he was one of the 
ablest and shrewdest men who ever held the presidenc}-. 
Once get an idea into his head, and it stuck there forever. 
He was a Jeffersonian, as all successful Americans must be. 
Abraham Lincoln was a good talker, but not a mere talk- 
er ; a good lawyer, but not a mere law3-er ; a man who had 
a great respect for law and forms, but not an idolatry for 
them. He was not a formalist. When the country was in 
danger, he could «ut the knot of red tape as easilj' and as 
willingly as an}' other man. I doubt whether there ever ex- 
isted a man of note in the countr}' who had less the character 
of a saint or an inspired person than Abraham Lincoln. 
Every thing about him was intensely human. He was neither 
poet nor prophet, but simply a man of common sense, and 
b}' no mean's above tUe trickeries and expediencies which are 
supposed to be characteristics of the class of " politicians." 
And what is the use of trying to make him out a man of 
supernatural merit? We are not likety, in these times of 
"■reconstruction," to forget that our loss in Lincoln's death 
is an irreparable one ; and there is no need of making him 
out a god, or an unexampled instance of heroic virtue and 
piety. 

[lu 18G8.] 
GEORGE B. LORING. 

George B. Loring is the son of a Unitarian clerg3'man in 
Andover (now deceased), a graduate of Harvard, medically 
educated, of carl}' antislavery predilections ; at one time 
physician, superintendent, steward, or what-not, of Chelsea 
Marine Hospital ; good-looking ; an excellent speaker for 



500 " WARRINGTON: " 

l3*ceums and miscellaneous gatherings, though not strong in 
debate ; the owner of a farm of five hundred acres close to 
the cit}' of Salem ; admitted to be an excellent agricul- 
turist, theorcticall}' and practicalh' ; ver}' well known by 
sight and hearing to the people, especiall}' of the country 
towns ; and of ver\' popular and agreeable manners. He 
was at first an antisUuxMy man. How it happened that he 
became, for the dozen years or so before 1863, one of the 
most violent of the .Southern sort of Democrats, I have 
never been able to make out ; but so it was. 

The real objection to the doctor seems to be that he has 
brought into the Republican party the peculiar tactics of the 
Democratic party. I b}' no means intend to affirm that there 
are not plenty of Republicans, who never were Democrats, 
who have the same general idea as to what is a proper mode 
of conducting a political canvass as the old Democratic 
leaders ; but, to a very large proportion of Republicans, 
this style of doing business is not quite the thing. The old- 
fashioned, high-toned, Federal Whig gentleman of Massa- 
chusetts was as tricky as anybod}^ else, if occasion required : 
but the competition for places was not, in his da}-, verj' 
great ; and he was seldom detected, and seldomer exposed. 
That " cycle of Cathay," the seven-years' administration of 
Gov. Briggs, if not as full of intricacies as the '• coalition " 
which followed it, owes its better character, in this respect, 
mainly to the absence of temptation, to the overwhelming 
majorities of the Whig party, and to the sense of pride, if 
not of honor, which compelled the leaders to keep silence as 
to the secret doings of themselves and their party. 

There is a superstition among old Whigs, that the bargain 
which made Mr. Boutwell governor, and Mr. Sumner senator, 
and placed Gen. Wilson and Gen. Banks in the chair of the 
State Senate and House, brought death into our political 
world, and all our woe ; and Judge B. R. Curtis declared 
that bargain to be an indictable otTence at common law. 
But there is no good reason to suppose that it was any more 
corrupt than the bargains which were made inside of the 



PEN-POBTRAITS. 501 

Whig party previous to 1848, especiall}- by the cotton manu- 
facturers, headed by Mr. Abbott La^vrence, who did much to 
demoralize the politics of the State. But the Republicans 
here flatter themselves that they have the advantage in 
respectability over the old Whigs, and the coalitionists, and 
the Know-Nothings ; and that the administrations of Gov. 
Andrew and Gov. Bullock have been cleaner than au}^ others 
of recent times. Be this as it may, — and possibly self-right- 
eousness alone would claim it, — there is an impression that 
some of the Democratic converts, like Dr. Loring and Gen. 
Butler, being exceedingly ambitious men, are not quite scru- 
pulous enough as to means, when they have a purpose to 
accomplish. I shall not finish what ought to be said about 
Dr. Loring, without mentioning, that, while in the legislature, 
he took ground in favor of the Prohibitory Law, stuck to it 
at great risk during the excitement of 1867 (when most men 
of ordinary sagacity saw that the law was "booked" for 
defeat) , and shared its fate, at least temporarily ; being de- 
feated by Gen. Sutton, a license-law Republican, in the 
canvass for the State Senate. 

HORACE MANN. 

Horace Mann was an unluck}' man; and his Life^ is a 
record of his struggles with ill-health, bigotr3', and hunker- 
ism. How he hated "the Orthodox" from the day Dr. 
Emmons preached that sermon at the funeral of his brother, 
all through his contests with "that poor thing" Matthew 
Hale Smith and "The Boston Recorder," and the jealous 
and vindictive men who were afraid he was making the 
common school of Massachusetts an engine of infidelity ! 
Mann's letters to Samuel Downer, George Combe, and others, 
and the extracts from his journal, are full of interest ; but 
they give a faint idea of tlie smashing power with which he 
fought the schoolmasters and the bigots. How he scourged 
Barnum Field and his brethren ! Matthew Hale Smith was 

1 Written by Mrs. Mann. 



502 " WARRING TON: " 

SO chary of truth, he said, that he would not use it " even 
as a condiment." Here is a judgment that will never wax 
nor wane. 

The fight with "Webster was terrible as long as it lasted ; 
and Mann never gave it up till his great enemj- was laid 
entirely low. The reading of the controversy now only 
keeps alive the vividness of Webster's great treachery to the 
cause of progress ; and the silence that broods over the 7th- 
of-March speech is more expressive than open words of con- 
demnation. Mr. Mann seems to have been a very sincere 
admirer of Mr. Webster up to that day of " apostas}'." It 
is customary to say that the judgment of posterity is the 
safest upon public men and manners. Perliaps so ; but it 
does not follow that the man of IS.jO or 1805 should sit 
down and cogitate as to what some historian of 18G0 or 1875 
will sa}' about his part in the controversy. The partlon- 
mongcrs are fond of quoting Macaulay and Ilallam as to the 
impolicy of executing Charles I. But I suspect Cromwell and 
Compan}' knew wliat they were about : so did Mr. Mann 
when he executed judgment upon Daniel Webster. 

The reading of this Life lets one into the secret of some 
weaknesses of Mr. Mann's, but very much deepens the im- 
pression left b}' his great qualities and his noble and useful 
career. As a controversialist and rhetorician, few men ever 
lived in this State who were his equal. lie had a contro- 
vers}' on the subject of voting with Wendell Phillips, which 
was on both sides wonderfully readable. Mr. Mann having 
the right of the question, and being quite as caustic as Mr. 
Phillips, got the better of his antagonist, as he did of ever}-- 
body else he ever encountered. It is very pleasant to have 
these biographies of our great men ; and those who are now 
living ought to write letters and journals, and do what they 
can, as Horace Mann did, for tlie entertainment and instruc- 
tion of poslerit}'. 

WENDKLL PHILLIPS. 

In Phillips you have naturalness and most perfect grace. 
He makes a most beautiful speech, strictly- argumentative, 



PEN-PORTRAITS, 503 

but with the keenest and finest illustration of his various 
points. His rivulet-like efibrts charm rather than thrill you. 
He certainlj' is our easiest, most persuasive, most eloquent, 
and, on the Avhole, our best " platform" speaker. 

"We all know that he does not believe the work of the anti- 
slaver}- part}' accomplished, but that the exigency is almost 
as great as ever. Every year he makes temperance speeches 
at the State House and elsewhere, telling the people that 
they must organize on that issue ; and now here he is telling 
the working-men that the^' must get forty thousand votes. It 
is very fortunate for him that he has a constitutional crotchet 
which keeps him from voting ; though what he will do when 
that is gone I cannot imagine. Mr. Phillips, though not a 
voter, is essentially a politician. His tastes are in the direc- 
tion of politics. He likes to consult and advise with poli- 
ticians ; and, if not hampered b}' constitutional opinions, he 
would be at the head of the radical politicians of the State, 
wise, cautious, crafty even, in counsel, in caucus, and in 
convention. 

What if he were in the same ward with Major Mahan, 
with whom he spoke on the platform? The major would 
claim his vote for representative, saying, "Look here, Mr. 
Phillips : I want 3-our help. Come down to the ward-room 
and speak forme." — "But," sa3-s Mr. Phillips, " 3'ou are 
against negro-suffrage." — "I know I am," says the major : 
" but I am for eight hours a day ; and, under your advice, we 
have organized a party." — "Ah ! but," replies Mr. Phillips, 
"j-ou are counsel for the rumsellers." — "I know I am," 
saj's the major ; " but what of that? Under your deliberate 
advice, we made the labor-question an issue : now come and 
help me put it thi'ough." The result of it all would bc', that 
the major would have the go-by. So would any temperance 
man who should be for eight hours, but against negro-suf- 
frage ; for Mr. Phillips, no matter how many reformatory 
machines he undertakes to run, makes the negro paramount, 
as he ought. He has a taste for politics, but no conception 
of the machmery and methods of carrying on parties. He 



504 "WARRINGTON:" 

ought to stay out, or go in, — one or the other. If he were in 
a party, he would have to j'ield some of his views, and act 
with the majority, or quit. As he is outside, he ought to 
confine himself to the business of propagating doctrines, 
without giving advice which it is impossible for men in a 
part}' to obe}'. 

Mr. Lyman complains, and perhaps justlj', of Mr. Phillips's 
melodramatic wa}' of describing his father, the mayor, in 
the days of the Garrison riot ; ^ and I thought there Avas the 
same fault in one of his references to Gov. Andrew. After 
all, why does Mr. Phillips take the Garrison riot, or tiie mob 
of December, 1860, as the groundwork of his argument? 
Because, in the old proshiver}- days, Mr. Garrison and Mr. 
Thompson were mobbed, and Mr. Lovejo}' was killed, and 
because, after the election of Lincoln, the well-intentioned but 
stupid merchants of Boston thought war could be averted by 
a peace conference and a repeal of the Personal-liberty Bill, 
and therefore it was bad policy to hold an antishivery meet- 
ing in the Tremont Temple, and proceeded to egg on the 
mob and the maj'or to break it up, it does not quite follow 
that our republican institutions and the cause of self-gov- 
ernment are in an}' great danger, or were in danger then. 

"We have had some antislavory mobs. Elizur Wright, and 
Charles G. Davis, and Lewis Hayden, and Martin Stowell, 
and T. AV. Iligginson, could tell stories about thom ; and so 
could Mr. Phillips himself, who spoke in Faneuil Hall on the 
night when one of them occurred. Those were good mobs, 
and the others were bad ones, to be sure ; but cannot we 
take a bad one once in a while, without giving up in despair? 
A drunken ballot ! — to be sure, a drunken l)allot is bad ; to 
be sure, you cannot found government on whiske}' : but the 
vast majorit}' of ballots are sober, and they are growing 
soberer every 3-ear. There is really no cause for alarm. 
Even that great national spittoon, the city of New York, 
will be cleaned out before man}' years, — soon as it is nasty 

1 In one of Mr. Phillips's speeches. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 505 

enough. Mr. Phillips spoke of the labor-question and the 
woman-question effectively ; and his speech, like all his 
speeches, had a high moral afflatus, which made it ver}' 
agreeable to the ethical sense. 

[Boston Daily Republican, November, 1848.] 
STEPHEN C. PHILLIPS.^ 

Stephen C. Phillips was a native of Salem, and graduated 
with honor at Harvard College in 1819. After reading law 
for a short period, he entered into mercantile pursuits. In 
the year 1824 he was elected a representative to the legisla- 
ture, being then but twenty-one j'ears of age. He continued 
a member of the legislature, in one or the other branch, till 
1833, distinguishing himself by his fidelity, eloquence, and 
ability. In 1834 he was chosen to fill the vacancy occasioned 
by the resignation of Hon. Rufus Choate in the Congress of 
the United States, where he served his constituents and the 
country with distinguished honor till his own resignation in 
1838. Mr. Phillips was for years a thorough, persevering, 
uncompromising antislavery man ; none more so in the 
ranks of the Whig party. 

In Congress he went all lengths with his associate and 
personal friend, John Quincy Adams. He was always with 
the small minority who were ready to take the extremest 
ground within the Constitution on that subject. He was 
foremost in every movement to bring the Whig party on to 
antislavery ground. In all the efforts made to prevent the 
annexation of Texas, — when George N. Briggs, and Abbott 
Lawrence, and Nathan Appleton, were silent, or, if they spoke 
at all, did so only to dissuade from exertion, — he stood 
shoulder to shoulder with the good men and true who fought 
it to the last ; resolved, that though others might be wanting 
to the great cause of human freedom on this continent, 
through timidity or short-sighted expediency, he would do 
his whole duty, come what might. He never paused to ask 

1 Free-Soil candidate for governor in 1848. 



506 " WARRINGTON: " 

how the movement might eflfect his personal iDopuUirit)', or 
his relations with the eminent men of the country, but went 
straiglit forward, animated by the principles of liberty, phi- 
lanthrop)', and religion, to do the work which these demanded. 
He ever stood the determined and uncompromising foe of the 
slave-power, the whole-souled friend and all}' of the free 
laborers, vindicating human rights against all who would 
encroach upon them, and resting his fearless advocacy oi 
" PROTECTION TO MAN " on the basis of his faith, — that all 
men alilce arc children of God, and therefore brethren of one 
anotlicr. 

Such was the man whom the Free-Soil party of Massachu- 
setts, in 1848, put in nomination for the chief magistrate. 

THEODORE PARKER. 

It seems to me that no man in the country, whether politi- 
cian, or clergyman, or man of letters, has exercised so large, 
and on the whole so good, an influence as Theodore Parker 
for the last twent}' years. Such a man's work could not be 
said to be finished while he lived and spoke and wrote ; but he 
was of comparatively less importance during the latter 3-ears 
of his life than he was from 1840 to 1850. To him, mon; than 
to any other man, — I had almost said, more than to all other 
men, — are we indebted for the privilege we have of thinking 
and speaking pretty much what we please to think and speak. 
The popes, Unitarian as well as Orthodox, tried to put him 
down ; but the}' had to deal witli a man who did not come 
into the world to be put down eillier by sneers, or neglect, 
or open opposition. He triumplied over all these obstacles ; 
and, when the little fellows who get up courses of lectures 
every winter in Boston studiously declined to invite him, he 
showed tlicin that tlie managers of country 13'ceums were 
more courageous than they ; and even the bluest conserva- 
tives and conformists had to invite him to speak, because the 
people wanted to hear him, and would hear him. Finally 
he determined to lecture in Boston, and did so, working him- 
self to death for the purpose of surmounting all obstacles to 
the free communication of his thoughts. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 507 

As an example of indomitable courage and energ}^, his 
life is a great legacy' to the people. He was not a poet, a 
man of genius, lilce Mr. Emerson, but a man of the clearest 
and most piercing insight ; of great strength of understand- 
ing ; boldness, with a spirit for contradiction, controversy, 
and criticism, which was invaluable to him in the circum- 
stances in which he was placed ; a fine love of nature, which 
softened and beautilled 'his stj'le and his manners ; great 
faith in humanity and its destinies ; a love of order and 
method, which wonderful!}- aided that indomitable working- 
power which he possessed bej'ond most men. He had, in 
fine, the very best qualities of an iconoclast, which was his 
vocation. How he tore down the Boston temples ! — rever- 
ence for Webster, respect for the Curtises, habit of implicit 
reliance on the advice of the Appletons and other denizens 
of Beacon Hill. How he confronted B. R. Curtis from the 
gallery- of Faneuil Hall, when that eminent lawyer undertook 
to misrepresent him ! How he scourged the commissioners, 
Loring, and Curtis the less, likening them to the masters of 
the Inquisition, and other renowned scoundrels of the olden 
time ! How persistently he followed up Orville Dewc}', and 
Dr. Adarns, and the Unitarian popes ! IMuch of this was 
unkind, of course ; he probabl}^ acknowledged it to be so 
afterwards : but it was necessary and indispensable work. 

Boston has been emancipated from its idol-worship ; and 
the idols are l^'ing round loose, with broken noses, bunged 
eyes, and general shabbiness and seediness of appearance. 
The great men of Boston find nobody to loolv up to them, 
and plent}- of leisure for introspection and self-worship. All 
this is Parker's work more than an}- other man's. He had 
an audience when and where Wendell Phillips could not get 
one. Even among the slaveholders, whose system he so 
fiercely denounced, he had sympathizers, because he was 
under the theological ban, and was stjded an infidel : for 
uonconformit}- is not bounded b}' Mason's and Dixon's Line, 
or any other line ; and every countrj- village in exary State 
has alwaj-s had its men and women who have quietly pro- 



508 " WARRINGTON: " 

tested against creeds and catechisms, and who rejoiced when 

a man came forward boldly, and, as Lowell profanely saj-s, — 

" Cared not a d— n for their damning." 

In making an estimate of 'Mr. Parker's character and use- 
fulness, it is not necessary to contend that his views were 
correct, or to take that matter into consideration at all. 
Ever}' man who protests^ as Parker did, is a legitimate fol- 
lower of Luther, no matter what his views are ; and the man 
who boldly confronts popular inlidelity (when infidelity gets 
to be popular) , or any superstition or fanaticism or folly, — 
whether it be the extreme of orthodoxy or the extreme of 
rationalism, the nonsense of antislaver}' or the nonsense of 
slaver}', — does noble service to the race. 

Mr. Parker was not a tolerant man, of course. He recog- 
nized every man's right to his own opinions, and the right 
of every other man to criticise and oppose them. Tolera- 
tion, as commonly understood, is simply indifference and 
laziness, or popularity-seeking. Some [)reachers think it a 
great thing to exchange services with men of other denomi- 
nations. Once in a while, you hear of a Baptist society 
offering to a Unitarian society the use of its meeting-house 
for months, omitting a part of its own services to accommo- 
date its neighbors, and vice versa. Now, if it is a serious 
matter, a matter of eternal life or eternal death, to the Ortho- 
dox preacher and his hearers, what obligation is he under, 
nay, what right has he, to give up half his sabbath to a man 
who does not believe it makes the slightest difference to a 
man whether lie professes one creed or another, or none at 
all ; to a man who holds to Pope's doctrine, which is the gos- 
pel of lazy toleration and indifference, — 

"For modes of faith let cjracelos.s zealots fight; 
Ilis can't be wrong whose life is in the right " ? 

The truth was the secret of Mr. Parker's great popularity 
and influence. He represented what was, to a very great 
extent, the popular estimate of the Church with its clergy 
and leading men. Men who were the last to believe in anti- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 509 

slaveiT, in temperance, in reform movements generally, 
would tolerate Parker's advocac}' of all these on account 
of tlie " dressing-down " which he gave the ministers and 
church-members. He was the creature, even more than he 
was the creator, of those unbelieving times. He was a man 
of a centur}', and, besides the work he did in modifying and 
softening the theology of New England, has left compara- 
tively little for anybody else to do. 

Theodore Parker has done his work, and is gone. We 
shall hear him no more. The best description of him, and 
a piece of verj- just criticism too, may be found in Lowell's 
" Fable for Critics." The concluding lines are all I have 
time to copy ; but the whole is worth reprinting : — 

" Every word that he speaks has been fierily furnaced 
In the blast of a Ufe that has struggled in earnest. 
There he stands, looking more like a ploughman than priest; 
If not dreadfully awkward, not graceful at least; 
His gestures all downright and same, if you will, 
As of brown-fisted Hobnail in hoeing a drill. 
But his periods fall on you, stroke after stroke, 
Like the blows of a lumberer felling an oak: 
You forget the man wholly; you're thankful to meet 
With a preacher who smacks of the field and the street, 
And to hear, you're not over-particular whence, 
Almost Taylor's profusion, quite Latimer's sense." 

JUDGE JULIUS ROCKWELL AND THE SUPREME JUDICIAL 
COURT. 

When a vacanc}' occurred on the bench of the Supreme 
Court, occasioned by the resignation of Bigelow, chief jus- 
tice, I had the honor to recommend Julius Rockwell for the 
vacanc}^, on the strength of his decision, that, if a juror 
wanted to see the General Statutes in order to ascertain what 
was the law in the case he was called on to settle, he ought 
to be gratified. This decision, you know, was overruled by 
the Supreme Judicial Court : our theory as to the jury 
being, that nobody but a fool must serve thereon ; and, in 
case (as too frequently happens) a sensible man happens to 



510 "WARRINGTON." 

he impanelled, he must be kept as ignorant as possible of 
the particular case which he has to determine. If a little 
of the court's must}' and stupid " law" had been swapped 
for Judge Rockwell's common sense, the public would iiave 
been the gainer. The court had better insist upon a jury of 
blind men, and done with it ; for there is no security-, in 
an}' case, that some one of the twelve arbiters may not, 
at some time or other, have looked into the statutes, and 
have remembered something he there read. Partially deaf 
men, according to the old joke, will do for gi-and jurors, 
because they are only obliged to hear one side ; but, if Rock- 
well' was wrong, your juror ought to be, not only blind, but 
wholly deaf. A dozen wooden men would be preferable, and 
far cheaper : let them be a panel, in every sense of the 
word. If the court needs any thing, it is not more legal 
learning, but originality and strength enough to break away 
from its musty and stupid traditions. 

No otTices have been so eagerly sought for, of late years, 
as the Supreme and Superior Court judgeships ; and the 
legal footfall has been oftener heard on the steps leading to 
the governor's room than any other. There is no harm in 
this, but a good deal of cant in denying it, or making a 
pretence to the contrary. The judicial ermine is out of 
date ; the wig is a by -gone institution ; and with the ermine 
and the wig has gone tlie idea that judges are any diirerent 
from other mortals. Wiiy sliould we expect them to be? 
Is not a man capable of giving an honest decision in a hun- 
dred-dollar lawsuit unless we invest him in our minds with 
godlike attributes? There is that story of Judge Grier, 
which everybody delights in, and which redeems his pro- 
slavery record from utter contempt, — how he set aside the 
unjust verdict of a jury against an unpopular man, with this 
remark, "Enter the verdict, Mr. Clerk: enter also, 'Set 
aside by the court.' I want it to be understood that it 
takes thirteen men to steal a man's farm in this court." 

I hope we shall some time get rid of this delusion, that we 
must have our greatest men in our supreme courts. I do 



PEN-P OR TRAITS. 511 

not see but we get along full as well with our highest court 
as we did when Shaw and "Wilde and Hubbard and Morton 
were upon it. It does not seem to me that any enormous 
degree of abilit}* is required to decide the great case of 
Commonwealth versxis Michael Elwood, carried up on excep- 
tions, in which the point was, w.hether the indictment describ- 
ing the property stolen by Michael was properly described in 
the indictment. "Four domestic fowls, otherwise called 
barn-door fowls," said the indictment. Michael, by his 
counsel, contended that this was not a sufficient description ; 
and the attorney-general was compelled to cite the diction- 
ai'ies, and Woods's "Natural Histor}-," and Macaulay's 
" Essays," in order that the court above might be satisfied, 
and Michael be punished for his larceny. For m}^ part, I 
think some means ought to be devised for keeping such 
questions as this out of the Supreme Court. What differ- 
ence could it make to Michael Elwood whether the fowls 
were minutely described or not? If the district-attorney 
had followed Milton, and accused Michael of stealing four 
" tame, villatic fowls," I cannot see that the prisoner would 
have had an}' right to complain. It is too bad that lawyers 
should be allowed to obstruct justice in this way, or that 
courts should be compelled to hear such absurd questions 
debated. 

There was another case, not long ago, in which one of 
the minor points was, whether a weapon used in a case of 
manslaughter was sufflcientl}' described when described as a 
" whipstock." I don't know how this tremendous point 
was decided; but it seems to me, that, for the decision of 
such a question, the less of a law^'cr yo\x have on the bencli, 
the better. I suppose there is a necessity for a court of 
appeals ; but it surely ought to be for some better purpose 
than fussing over these questions. If Judge Brigham or 
Judge Rockwell can sentence Michael Elwood to any punish- 
ment which seems fair and just under the statute provisions, 
surely they are capable of passing upon the question, whether 
his offence was correctly and full}' described or not. And 



512 "WARRINGTON:" 

it seems as if a statute might be framed which would keep 
such questions as this, uot only from going up, but from 
being raised at all : but the small lawyers would fight 
against it, I suppose, and declaim about Runnymede, and 
fanc}' themselves Pyms and Sidneys and Ilampdens ; and we 
should never hear the last of it. 

The attempt to introduce into legislative proceedings the 
rubbish known as the " rules of law and evidence," which 
have overlaid tlie courts, darkened counsel, obscured common 
sense, and hindered justice, for so many hundred 3ears, is 
not very likely to succeed. It is much more probable that tlie 
Ijractice in the courts will b}' and b}- be made more nearly 
to conform to the rules of common sense which prevail in 
legislative assemblies, town-meetings, and political and 
social life. Hearsay ? — why should you not act upon hear- 
say'? You buy and sell, marry and are given in marriage, 
vote and govern, upon hearsay : why not tr}- causes on hear- 
say, only scrutinizing and sifting your hearsay as you ought 
to in all things? Wliy not let common sense get into the 
court as well as into the pulpit and into the medical school? 
You trust your body to a doctor's hearsa}', and your soul to 
a minister's hearsay : let a witness's and a lawyer's and a 
judge's be just as serviceable for the imprisoned juror, and 
as innocent for the beleagured prisoner or plaintiff or de- 
fendant. Tlie ermine (real or constructive), and the robe, 
and the white cravat, and the oath, and the ridiculous fornui- 
la of the indictment and complaint and pleading, — mak- 
ing it a necessit}^ to tell a score of lies to get at one truth, — 
are only a part of that mystery and humbug b}- whicli the 
human mind is enslaved, as b}' the surplice of the clergyman, 
and the Latin prescription of the doctor. 

Ah ! when I think of Judge Rockwell and of Judge Colt, 
admirable on and off the bench, I withdraw all offensive 
sarcasm. 

ROBEUT UANTOUL. 

Mr. Rantoul was, beyond all question, the ablest man of 
the Democratic party in New England, and, with the exccp- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 513 

tion of Mr. "Webster, the ablest man of any party. As a 
debater, he had few, if any, equals in the whole countr}- ; 
while his addresses in court and before the people were 
models of clear, concise, and lucid argumentation. Mr. 
Rantoul was from his early manhood a Democrat. Although 
of a Federal and Whig famil}', and possessing talents which 
would have given him any station he should choose, had he 
preferred to act with the Whig part}^, he fought for and with 
the Democratic party of the State during man}- j-ears, in 
which it struggled along in a hopeless and meagre minorit}'. 
He defended its doctrines in the legislature. It is among 
the choicest reminiscences of old Democrats how Mr. Ran- 
toul used to meet the Whig debaters in the House, and 
alwaj's vanquished them by superior argument or superior 
skill. Before the people he was also indefatigable, and did 
more than a score of any other men to give his part}- a strong 
position. Better than all this, Mr. Rantoul was a Democrat 
in something more than a party sense. He studied and 
believed the doctrines of Thomas Jefferson ; and, for carr}'- 
ing them out to their true results, he was driven out of his 
party. 

He was a leading temperance man ; and the opponents of 
the gallows will always remember that their strongest and 
sharpest weapons to hew down that institution were forged 
in Mr. Rantoul's workshop. At a later da}', and up to the 
da}' of his death, he was the determined enemj' of slavery. 
It detracts not one iota from his sincerity in this respect that 
he concluded not to oppose the election of Gen. Pierce. 

We shall not forget hearing him proclaim at Salem in 
1850-51, in his boldest and most emphatic manner, the great 
truth, that " libert}' is national, and slaver}' is sectional," — 
a truth which, full}- acted upon, will destroy slavery. For a 
man Mho has broken away from a proslavery party, and 
acted in other ranks, such a declaration would be as easy as 
any other word : not so for a man who designed to remain in 
a party until it was puriGed, or so long as he could see a 
chance of effecting good results by remaining. The persecu- 



514 "WARRINGTON- :" 

tion to whicli Mr. Rantoul was subjected in liis own partj', 
and the steadiness with which he resisted it, are proofs of 
his sincerity, which the antislavery men of this State will 
always remember with gratitude. To his party, which he 
had built up, and in which he was destined to take a still 
more prominent position, and to the country*, which can ill 
afford to lose so great a man, Mr. Rantoul' s death is an 
irreparable loss. 

ELBRIDGE GERRY ROBINSOX.^ 

Mr. Robinson was born in Concord, Mass., on the 24th 
of June, 1805. He was apprenticed to the trade of a 
carriage-painter ; and, after serving his time at Concord, 
went to Salem, where he worked at the same business. In 
1831 he removed to Dedham, where, for a time, he followed 
the same calling. Here he Avas in the habit of writing for 
the newspapers, — both for "The Advertiser" and "The 
Patriot," we believe. "The Advertiser" was then pub- 
lished by Mr. Ebenezer Fish. Mr. Robinson contributed 
many tales and sketches to its columns, and an endless 
number of anecdotes and jokes, many of which were ex- 
quisitely told, and some of which are even now standing 
favorites of the newspapers, and re-appear ever}' year as 
regularl}' almost as the counting-house almanac.- At this 
time, being in high health and spirits, and possessed of an 
admirable humoi:, and fine power of amusing his friends, 
Mr. Robinson was the favorite of all who know him. Dis- 
ease soon came to sadden, in some degree, his exuberant 
cheerfulness ; but to the last, among his friends and rela- 
tives, he was a cheerful and very humorous man. 

After Mr. Fish died, Mr. Robinson purchased " The Ad- 
vertiser," in August, 1837. He published it by that name 
until February, 1839, when he made it a political paper, and 
styled it " Tlie Democrat." He supported the Democratic 

1 " AVarriugton's eldest brother." 

2 Seo Apiiendix D. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 515 

policy and nominations until 1848, when he and his paper 
went with the Free-Soil partj^ for Mr. Van Buren. His 
health soon began to fail, however, and his interest in 
partisan politics diminished ; and more of his attention was 
paid to literar}' matters and general miscellan3^ He Avas a 
great reader of books, and a careful saver of them, 

Mr. Robinson Avas strictl}' the friend of order, of temper- 
ance, of freedom, of peace, of good neighborhood, to all 
men. His weekly visit to his subscribers was a pleasant 
and kindl}' one, and he brought no vicious counsel with him. 
At last, when the end approached, he was ready and willing 
to go ; his thoughts of family and friends being not anxious, 
but cheerful and confident, and his reliance in the goodness of 
God sustaining him through all his sickness to the last dread 
end. He died peacefully and happil}' as he had always lived. 
His outward circumstances were pleasant. Blessed with 
an affectionate wife and two children, and a large circle of 
friends, his lot might be called a happy one, except these 
bonds of disease. The wise definition of wealth might 
apply to him; and, tried bj' it, he was a rich man: "The 
wealth of a man is the number of things he loves and 
blesses, the number of things he is loved and blessed by'." 
But he has left his house and his friends, and "the warm 
precincts of the cheerful day," Peace to his memor}', which 
shall be ever pleasant to all who knew him ! 

"Blue be the sky, and soft the breeze; 
Earth green beneath thy feet; 
And be the damp mound gently pressed 
Into thy narrow place of rest. 

There, through the long, long summer-hours, 

The golden light shall lie. 
And thick young herbs, and groups of flowers, 

Stand in their beauty by; 
The oriole shall build, and tell 
His love-tale close beside thy cell ; 

The idle butterfly 
Shall rest him there; and there be heard 
The housewife-bee and humming-bird. 



516 " WARRINGTON: " 

And if, around his place of sleep, 

The friends he loved should come and weep, 

They might not haste to go: 
Soft airs and song and light and hloom 
Shall keep them lingering by his tomb ; 

There to their softened hearts shall bear 
The thoughts of what has been, 

And speak of one who cannot share 
The gladness of the scene ; 

Whose part in all the pomp that fills 

The circuit of the summer hills 
Is, that his grave is green." 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 517 



CHAPTER XVII. 
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES {Continued). 

CHARLES SUMKER. 

[In 1863.] 

As an orator, Mr. Sumner is not so fascinating as he was 
ten or twenty 3'ears ago ; and there is good reason for this. 
His life has been " fieri!}' furnaced," for the last fifteen 
3ears, in a heat such as few men in this country have ever 
undergone. Eighteen or twenty years ago, — say in 184G 
and 1847, — w^hen he first came into the Whig conventions 
with Stephen C. Phillips, and Charles Francis Adams, and 
John G. Palfre}", and Charles Allen, and AVilliam Dvvight, 
and fought Webster and Ashmun and Winthrop on the 
question of making vital the Whig antislavery resolutions 
of the previous ten years by virtually pledging the Whig 
party to resist an}' further slaveholding and doughface nomi- 
nation for national office, — at this time he was not only an 
earnest, strong, and argumentative orator, but a careful 
student of the graces of style ; and he was listened to with 
almost as attentive an ear, and looked at with almost as 
admiring an ej'e, as Mr. Everett himself. Neither of them 
could ever, for spontaneity and the natural oratorical gift, 
compare with Wendell Phillips ; and his power of pleasing 
seems never to grow old. 

But Sumner, ever since 1856, has had other work to do 
besides studying the graces and tricks which are the proper 
exercises of the holiday orator, and which not even gi'eat 



518 " WARRING TON: " 

and spontaneous orators are exempt from. He has become 
a great statesman, an expert debater, a fier\- propagandist 
of ideas ; a man to ride the whirlwind of civil controvers}*, 
and direct the storm of opinion which is to determine for a 
quarter or half a centur}', for good or evil, the destinies of 
the countr}'. Mr. Sumner's words are " half-battles : " they 
are as hard as cannon-balls, and well aimed from an Arm- 
strong gun. No man in the civil service, — if we except Mr. 
Lincoln himself, and perhaps one or two of his advisers, 
■who have had to do witli the executive part of the govern- 
ment, and who could do things with or without, or even 
against, popular or congressional approval, and def)' conse- 
quences, — no man has had so great influence upon the des- 
tinies of the country for the last four years. 

One great secret of his power is his intense personality. 
He is so thoroughly in earnest, and so conscious of his power, 
that no obstacle seems to him too great to be overcome. 
His capacity for business is ver}- great. His habits are 
orderly and systematic. He is frank in his dealings with all 
men who come to him for aid or advice. If he agrees to do 
a thing, he goes to work and does it, or at least attempts it, 
and is not satisfied with one repulse ; so that, with his won- 
derful earnestness and industry, he is more than a match, as 
a friend or an eneni}-, for half a dozen lukewarm or indif- 
ferent men who ma}' be arra3'ed against him. In the Senate 
he has many influential personal enemies, who do not like 
his style of doing things, — peevish men, like Fessenden ; or 
men who feel obliged to cater somewlint to Nortli-western 
negro dislike, like Trumbull ; or toadcaters, like Doolittle. 
But more flexibility in the Senate would be attained, proba- 
bly, at the expense of those great and overmastering qualities 
which make him one of the powers and estates of tlie countr}-. 
Of course, the great secret, after all, is the fact that he is 
right, and is with the people in the front rank of the pro- 
cession ; no straggler, and never footsore. 



PEN-POBTRAITS. 519 

[In 1874.] 

Mr. Sumner would not be properly described as " a hu- 
morist ; " 5"et he was b}' no means incapable of enjoying and 
making a joke, and was an excellent companion at the table 
where humor is relished. Bishop Haven sa3-s he was the 
" chiefest of our statesmen." A philanthropist, I suppose, 
is one who loves his fellow-?jia>i, and is, with more or less 
constanc}', employed in devising plans and gathering money 
for alleviating the condition of man^ especiall}' the criminal, 
the pauper, and the physicall}' unfortunate. He is sometimes 
a statesman besides ; i.e., if he gets time to be. Now, Mr. 
Sumner was one who did not care for or deal with man^ 
but with men; whose studies were in the direction of the 
rights of races, not attracted toward the misfortunes of 
individuals. This is manifest ever^'where in his life and 
labor. I don't remember anj' exception to this since the 
prison-discipline controversy forty years ago, even if this 
was an exception. It was the barbarism of slavery ^ in the 
sense of slaverj' being a denial of the right of man to him- 
self, it was the crime against Kansas as a State, as a body 
politic, which mainly excited his ire ; and it was because 
he was a man of this great statesmanlike quality that he so 
disappointed at last some even of his greatest friends, who 
had misconceived his bent, and were afraid he was merely a 
philanthropist like (for example) Mr. Gerritt Smith in his 
3'ounger da3's, John Howard of England, and others. Mr. 
Sumner seems to me to have been a man more like Sir Sam- 
uel Romill}' in this statesmanlike bent ; and Sir Samuel was 
one of the greatest and best of Englishmen, as the English 
Whig party was the greatest and best part}^ that ever ex- 
isted. 

When Mr. Sumner (in 1861) was on a visit to Washing- 
ton, a Boston contractor to whom the government owed 
considerable raone}- went on to collect it. He took certain 

1 It was "Warrington's" opinion, that Mr. Sumner's Introduction to 
his Look ou White Slavery in the Barbary States was the best thing 
he ever wrote. 



520 "WAnmxGToy:" 

other claims with him ; among them one of forty thousand 
cloUars, -which a Boston merchant of the most extreme and 
ultra hiinkerism intrusted to him. AVhen the contractor 
returned, he met the hunker merchant, and told him he had 
succeeded in getting his money. Overflowing, not only with 
gratitude and joy, but with surprise, hunker asked, " Wh}' ! 
how did you get it? I had no idea you would be successful 
in getting it." — " Oh ! " said the other, " I had nothing to 
do with it. Sumner happened to be in "Washington ; and I 
put the matter in his hands, and he fixed it." — "Well," 
said hunker, " it does seem as if Sumner was growing more 
and more practical every year." Under an administration 
like Buchanan's or Pierce's, when it was an open question 
whether Sumner should be on any committee, it does not 
seem a matter of surprise that he did not obtain a i-eputation 
as a practical man. But it would be ditEcult to name a 
man, — and this is the universal testimony of those Mho 
have been to AVashington on business, and have asked Mr. 
Sumner's aid, — it would be diflicult, if not impossible, to 
find a man so industrious, methodical, thorough, energetic, 
and successful, in attending to pure matters of business. 
This is the simple fact, and no exaggeration Avhatever. 
His great practical talent excels that of almost every man 
we have ever sent to Congress. 

When the people I have mentioned found out, as they 
did during Mr. Lincoln's administration, that the great 
senator was as prompt a business-man as the State ever sent 
to Washington ; and, later, when they relied on him always 
for sound views of financial questions according to the best 
traditions and experience, — they were invariably glad to see 
him here, especially after the Greeley matter had a little 
blown over, and it was found that " nepotism," tliough 
carried a little too far in the line of thoroughness of illus- 
tration, was not unjust to the presidential head of the 
nation. Who that remembers the events of 18G1, 18G2, 
and 18G3, and Mr. Sumner's struggles to get rid of the 
conservative and Union-saving method of carrying on the 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 521 

war by adopting Mr. Seward's and Mr. Adams's plan of 
guaranteeing that slaver}- should no longer in the States live 
a threatened life, but should be made secure by positive 
constitutional provision, — who that remembers his speeches 
at our State conventions, and their contrast with the 
instructions given to Mr. Adams by the State Department, 
can sa}' that he was something else more than he was a 
" statesman " ? 

In 1862 there was a contest of political ideas in Massa- 
chusetts, which men of the antislavery school ought to 
remember and appreciate. It was the year when hunkerism 
here in Massachusetts organized itself to prevent the re- 
election of John A. Andrew as governor, and Charles Sum- 
ner as senator. It Avas the j-ear when was decided the 
question, whether a more radical issue should or should not 
be made with the rebellion ; whether Africa should be carried 
into the war by the employment of black men as soldiers ; 
and whether the government should stop maundering and 
snivelling about the abstract question of the right to secede, 
and fight out the war on the real and vital issue, — the 
existence of slavery. I say, it was the year when this ques- 
tion was decided ; because it cannot be doubted, that if 
Massachusetts had fallen back in 1862, and had defeated 
Andrew and Sumner, Mr. Lincoln would not have gone 
forward, or, at least, not have gone forward so firml}', and 
have raised the issue which fiuall}^ gave us victory by enlist- 
ing on one side the moral power, which was stronger than 
regiments. 

I well remember the incident (in 1862) , when a few radical 
Republicans, four or five at most, organized the plan of 
compelling the Republican State Convention to nominate 
Mr. Sumner, and of fighting the "People's" part}', as it 
dared to call itself, on its own chosen "conservative" 
ground ; and, if any one doubts the difficulties of the situa- 
tion, I should like to have him look back, and read the 
speeches and resolutions of Joel Parker and Leverett Salton- 
stall, and the men who tried by that movement to make the 



522 "WARRIXGTOX." 

war a war for "the flag" only, and not for freedom and 
regeneration. Charles Sumner was the great central figure 
of that contest ; and, from that time forward to the end of 
reconstruction, he was the great civic hero of the crisis. 
Den}- it who nia}', history will inevitably and with emphasis 
declare this ; and there is no power which can obliterate 
the record. 

I have seen but little reference, in all the tributes made to 
the character of our great senator, to his strong solicitude 
for the spread and permanency of republican ideas in 
Europe. I have man}' times been struck with the uniformity 
of his opinion as to the fitness of all those peoples for the 
freest and most flexible governments. The French, he 
always insisted, were as fit for republicans as any bod}'. 
An established republican and democrat himself, he never 
dreamed of making exceptions ; and, even although he had 
specialties and particular objects for his democratic fury, he 
never, as far as I know, doubted the theory of democracy, 
or dreamed that there were or could be any exceptions to it. 
This seems to me one of the chief glories of his character. 

GEORGE L. STKAUNS. 

Few men are left in Boston to sustain so well as Mr. 
Stearns the reputation its merchant philanthropists have 
given it. lie was by no means one of her richest men, 
though he was in very successful business, and in the receipt 
of a lai-ge yearly income. He did not give money by the 
million dollars at a time, — he could not afford that, — but 
he gave very liberally for a great diversit}' of objects, and 
always for good ones. And, besides, he gave Avhat was 
much better than money, — time, more than he could well 
spare from his extensive business ; energy, which, to a man 
of his frail body and feeble health, was a part of life itself; 
rare organizing faculty, which made every man feel that his 
projects were feasible ; strong persuasive powers and un- 
daunted perseverance, which converted the unwilling, and 
conquered the stubborn ; faith, which removed mountains of 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 523 

difficult}" ; and a cheerful optimism, ■which made eveiybody he 
met satisfied that the battle, whatever it might be, was sure 
to be won before long. So that, although manj- men have 
given more mone}' for philanthropic objects, few, if aiy, 
have contributed more greatly to their success : and the 
hundred thousand dollars which we are assured he gave for 
public purposes and in private charities within tlie last 
dozen or fifteen j-ears really represented, probabl}', fivefold 
that sum, even in money ; and the heart-work and brain-work 
with which he accompanied it were be^'ond all price. 

"We suppose no man not directly enlisted in the Kansas 
controversy', eitlier in the field of actual conflict or in the 
halls of legislation at "Washington, did so much as Major 
Stearns for the freedom of that State. He was the intimate 
friend of John Brown, that breaker of human, and builder 
of di^■ine, laAv ; and furnished him with arms for that liberat- 
ing enterprise into Virginia, which, rather than the siege 
of Sumter, was the beginning of the great war. He offered 
his services to the government in the enlistment of colored 
troops, and carried into that work a facult}' for organization 
such as few men in this communitj- possessed ; and to him, 
in a large degree, is due the success of the movement. When 
the war closed, he entered upon the work of agitation for 
the complete enfranchisement of the race he had helped to 
liberate, and sent forth his pamphlets, papers, and broad 
sheets, gratuitoush', through the length and breadth of the 
land, at one time issuing no less than sixty thousand weekly 
of " The Right Way.'.' 

Always disposed to look on the bright side of things, he 
allowed himself to be mistaken in the character of Andrew 
Johnson, with whom he had found it easy to co-operate in 
Tennessee ; but no pride of opinion stood in the way of his 
ready acquiescence in what was soon found to be the true 
and the universal view, b}- all good men, of the President's 
character. He was no politician ; never asked for nor held 
an office : 3'et he was the trusted friend of the best of our 
politicians; and no man's advice was oftener sought b}' our 



524 "WARRINGTON:" 

senators and representatives and governors. lie was of a 
singularly transparent and sincere nature ; so that no man 
ever dreamed of doubting or distrusting him in the slightest 
degree. His yea was yea ; and his nay, na}- : j-et he was the 
readiest man in the world to j-ield in matters of detail to his 
friends, when he believed them to be better informed or 
more sagacious than himself. But we need not sa}' more. 
A great number of his friends and associates of all classes 
of societ}", and of all creeds in religion, — mercantile friends, 
political friends, philanthropic friends, literar}- friends, and 
friendly neighbors and townsmen, — assembled at Medford, 
where he lived, to pay the last honors to the deceased citizen ; 
and then the assembled friends went away sorrowing. 

He will live in the hearts of his friends so long as 
memorj' endures. The world is poorer for his loss ; but 
humanity' has been infinitely enriched b}- his life and ex- 
ample. His name will attend that of America's chiefest 
martyr, and posterity will know and honor him as the friend 
of John Brown. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Scarcely any man of note has been so well liked, and so 
grievously disliked, by the same people, at various times 
during the last twelve years, as Mr. Seward. He did great 
service to the antislaver}' cause,. and in a general waj', before 
he entered Mr. Lincoln's cabinet. He was bold enough to 
be an anti-Mason, and never showed any tolerance toward 
Know-Nothingism. I can call to mind only two other lead- 
ing men of his rank — viz., Sumner and Henry A. Wise — who 
fought the " American" movement boldh'. Wise's fight in 
Virginia broke the back of that peculiarl}' odious and anti- 
American part}- ; Sumner made grand speeches against it ; 
and Seward was alway.s hostile to it. Let each be freshly- 
remembered for this. Yet Seward and Sumner very likel}- 
thought their diplomatic wisdom one of their chief claims to 
recollection and gratitude. 

The four or five big volumes of the secretary's correspond- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 525 

ence with our ministers abroad and with the ministers of 
foreign governments are about as valuable for principles as 
so man}' pages of arguments before the Municipal Court in 
Boston. Mr. Evarts was appointed to go to Geneva because 
" The Alabama " case was a great lawsuit, and it was need- 
ful to send a lawj'er who was in the habit of winning cases. 
Mr. Evarts and the rest got fifteen million dollars ; or, say, 
lift}' cents apiece for ever}' person in the United States. A 
heav}^ lawsuit. Frankness, honest}', openness, and fair deal- 
ing, by Mr. Seward on our part, and an equal amount of the 
same qualtities on the part of England, in the outset, would 
have saved all the gab, and the spoiling of white paper, and 
the wear and tear of conscience, on the part of those who 
were sent abroad, or staid at home, "to lie for their coun- 
try." A great lawsuit indeed! Divided into its elements, 
it would have been settled as easily as nine-tenths of the 
claims are now settled. 

WILLIAM STOWE. 

Few private citizens could have died, whose death would 
have occasioned more regret than that of AYilliam Stowe. 
When he was at the State House last, he told me that he had 
been to see the legislature every year for thirty years, except 
the year 1870. In 1871 he was in Boston on the occasion of 
the laying of the corner-stone of the post-offlce, and dined 
with the Bird Club, the members of which were among his 
best friends. He was always welcome at their table, and, for 
that matter, in every place where good, witty, cheery conver- 
sation was liked. On this last occasion, I found him, feeble 
as he was, as fond of a joke, and almost as well able to 
entertain his friends, as ever. 

Mr. Stowe's humor was of a rare quality ; but his 
thorough contempt for cant, shams, and humbugs, was one of 
his most endearing and enduring qualities. I have many 
letters from him, — mostly between 18G2 and 1865, during 
the war, — which I wish I had time to look up. Tiic}' are 
short, shai'p, pithy, and almost invai'iably contain some 



526 "WARRINGTON: " 

humorous "dig" at one or more of the most transparent 
of the popular humbugs. McClellan in the height of his 
popularit}', and Johnson from the moment he began to show 
signs of apostatizing, were his special objects of contempt. 

I saw much of him in 1858, and so on, until he left the 
ofBce of clerk of the House of Representatives. He was an 
excellent parliamentarian, — all the better for having a con- 
tempt for the niceties and lore and i)recedents of his pro- 
fession ; and thoroughlv imbued with the first and onh' 
parliamentary principle, — how to get at the will of the 
assembly in the quickest way. On one occasion he was told, 
in the hearing of the House, by the speaker, "The clerk will 
do so and so." — " The clerk will do as he thinks proper about 
it," said Mr. Stowe, loudl}' enough to be heard not onl}' 
by the speaker, but by members. Having promised to 
perform the duties of Jiis oflSce to the best of his abilit}', he 
could not do otherwise, as recording officer, than to make up 
the record, or make his indorsement, according to the fact, 
subject, of course, to express order of the House, and not 
of the speaker. 1 imagine he must have got that odd habit 
of suddenly shaking his head from side to side from a feel- 
ing of discontent at hearing frivolous points of order raised 
for the dela}' of business. 

He was first chosen in 1854, succeeding Col. Schouler. 
The Know-Nothiug slupidit}' overlook the State in the fall 
of that year. He was not the man to yield to tliat, of course, 
cither before or after the election ; and so had to give way to 
the caucus candidate. Tiie House was glad to restore him 
in 1857 ; and he held the office until 1802, when he declined 
a re-election, and was appointed postmaster of Springfield.' 
Nobody better deserved tlie place, either on account of fit- 
ness or party fidelity ; and it was a real jo}' to his friends 
that he was able to hold office during all the vicissitudes, 
even of Republican rule, until his death. I infer from his 
letters and talk, that, for the last four or five years at 

1 " ■\Yuriinirton " was elected to succeed Lira. 



PEK-PORTRAITS. 527 

least, he thought himself liable to die at a moment's warn- 
ing, or without immediate warning. Mr. Stowe was born in 
the same j-ear with Gov. Clafliu, Major Morrisse}', and 3-our 
correspondent. 

WILLIAM SCHOULER. 

Gen. Schouler's funeral was attended by the kind of people 
he liked and was associated with in life, old political friends, 
newspaper men, militaiy men, and life-long (almost) per- 
sonal friends, — Dr. Brewer, who was with him in "The 
Atlas;" Col. Clapp of "The Journal," one of his most 
intimate friends of the last twenty years ; "William Bogle, 
who knew him, perhaps, as well as or better than anybody 
outside of his own familj- ; Col. N. A. Thompson, George B. 
Upton, Peter Harvey, and other old Boston Whigs, with men 
who had been with him in the adjutant-general's office ; and I 
met a Salem man, Mr. Barlow, who came because he knew 
Schouler in his boyhood at Lynn, when his father as well as 
himself worked for a Mr. Hall at calico-printing. The 
services in the church were conducted b}' Dr. Edson of St. 
Anne's Church, Lowell, who is about eightj' 3-ears old, I 
suppose, and who has seen the entire growth of Lowell since 
it became a seat of manufacturing industry ; and by Dr. 
Hoppin, who was rector of the church at old Cambridge 
when Schouler lived at West Cambridge, thirty -five years 
ago. 

When I knew the general first, in 1838 or 1839, he was a 
dcA'out and regular Episcopalian ; and I presume he was 
such till his death. A wooden, red-painted factory, stationed 
just off the main road in West Cambridge, was the place of 
business where he, with his father and brothers, carried on 
calico-printing. At the age of twenty-five Schouler was 
inclined to politics, to the military, to literature, and to pub- 
lic affairs, — a public-spirited, energetic, and popular man, 
well established in business and in life. He used to delight 
in writing for a newspaper which I printed in Concord, prin- 
cipally (as it turned out) for the benefit of the local politi- 



528 "WARIilNGTON:" 

cians, certainl}' not for in}' own ; and he used to send up 
"leaders" which instructed the voters of Middlesex as to 
the intricacies of sub-treasur}^ problems, the abuses of the 
Van Buren administration, &c., with squibs at the expense 
of " The Concord Freeman," which I printed, and got the 
credit of, repaj'ing him in kind afterward. He was an easy 
and fluent writer, and a clear one ; a shrewd and an honest 
politician, and an effective speaker, perhaps not for Faneuil 
Hall, but for the average country audience of that da}-. 

One of the most comical incidents in my early recollec- 
tion of -politics occurred in 1840, in the town of Bolton, 
whither Schouler, taking me up by the way, had gone to 
spoak»on the great questions of the da}'. At the close of his 
speech, the chairman of the town committee rose ; and, 
saying that it had been suggested that three cheers should 
be given for the "eloquent orator," he proceeded to put it 
deliberately to vote w^hether the}' should be given. "All 
those in favor of giving three cheers," &c., " will say A}'." 
There was no objection ; and the chairman then led off with 
the cheers, vrhich, after such an introduction, were, as 3'ou 
ma}' suppose, scarcely more than " sighs of extra strength 
with the chill on." For years this Worcester-county rural 
enthusiasm was a recurring anecdote to Schouler wherever I 
met him. He was full of stories. The traits of some of his 
old Scotch fellow-workmen furnished him with opportunities 
for rich conversation and good-hearted mimicry : he was 
not capable of ill-natured mirthfulness, even under the temp- 
tations which beset a natural-born humorist. 

In 1842 ho bought "The Lowell Courier and Journal," 
which, under various names, had enjoyed the ministrations of 
J. S. C. Knowlton, E. C. Purdy, John S. Sleeper, H. Hast- 
ings AYeld, Daniel S. Richardson, W. O. Bartlett, and 
others. He set out with ideas Avhich he could not ful'.y 
carry out, — a "Washington correspondent, for instance. But 
the paper was a very effective one. JNIiddlesex County was 
in 1842 very "unsound" in its politics, the anti-Masonic 
coalition having demoralized it six or eight years before ; 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 529 

aud the Lowell paper did much to bring it round to the 
"Whig side. He staid in Lowell through the Texas crisis, 
and till after Clay's defeat. This last event completely 
unmanned him ; and I shall not soon forget his forlorn con- 
dition when Ben Thurston arrived b}' horse express from 
Boston at midnight, with a note from Isaac Livermore, 
giving news that New York had " gone for Polk ; " the morn- 
ing news having prepared ever3-bod3' for the opposite result. 
At this election, the paper exhibited gi'eat zeal in opposing 
the Liberty part}' ; and I remember some articles furnished 
by Edmund Quincy, then of the Garrison organization, 
showing up Birney and Joshua Leavitt in all their hideous- 
ness. Abbott Lawrence's and Nathan Appleton's position on 
the Texas question, and Mr. Winthrop's toast, " Our coun- 
tr}', however bounded," did not suit Schouler ; and I remem- 
ber that a "slashing" and "crushing" leader (as I sup- 
posed), which I wrote on Abbott Lawrence, met with his 
decided approval. Texas was annexed in spite of it, how- 
ever. 

Schouler was a "Conscience Whig" of 1846 and 1847, 
within the limits of party allegiance ; but he stuck to the 
party in 1848, having a real faith in Taylor, as well as in the 
part}'. The 7th-of-March speech was too much for him, 
and was a great trial of his attachment to Mr. Webster. 
Failing to support Webster in "The Atlas," he was driven 
off b}' the "Stop my paper," and "Slop my advertisement," 
of the Webster men of Boston ; and, after a while, he went 
to Ohio. It would be only repetition for me to sa}" what 
ever3-body saj's of his genuine goodness, and of the many 
high and noble qualities of his character. There is a pas- 
sage b}' Ruskin which I call to mind when such men die ; and 
let me quote it in concluding what I have to say of this old 
friend and true man : ' ' Consider also whether we ought not 
to be more in the habit of seeking honor from our descend- 
ants than our ancestors, thinking it better to he nobly remem- 
bered than nobly born. 



530 " WARRING TON : ' ' 

B. P. SHILLABER ("MRS. PARTINGTON") AND THE CARPET- 
BAGGERS (of "the carpet-bag"). 

The death of "Miles O'Reilly" brings to miud Shillaber's 
" Carpet-Bag," with which Ilalpine, who in 1852 and 1853 
styled himself "Charles Broadbent," was connected as writer 
and associate-editor. I knew him a little at that time, but 
do not remember an}- thing of his in "The Carpet-Bag" 
worth si)ecial mention : indeed, although he was a frequent 
writer of verse, he was " no great of a poet." As a politi- 
cian, however, he was lively and agreeable ; and I believe 
he was a genuine good fellow. I know Gov. Andrew was 
hugely tickled with " O'Reilly's " account of the dinner or 
supper in New York, in which the governor was represented 
as entertaining the company with a song. His political 
humor was quite rich ; but political humor is very common, 
and growing more common. Humorous writing is quite a 
matter of habit. Once get the knack of it, and 3'ou can go 
on with it forever. It i > not ever}' one, however, who can 
get the knack. 

Among the carpet-baggers of 1852, one of the best was 
that law3-er, — too early lost, not less able than bright, — 
J. Q. A. GrilTm. He wrote some caricatures of the Supreme- 
court reports, — "Reports of Cases argued and decided in 
the Old Fogy Court, during Hilary and Michaelmas Terms, 
before the Rt. Hon. Be^^ee Dicques, Baron Cucumbre, C.J., 
Hon. Danelle Needhame, B., and Hon. B. Roussiele, J." 
The cases were reported by Azariah Bumpas, who, with true 
reporter's dignity, insisted on styling his works " Bumpas's 
Reports," instead of Grotou Reports, as, from their localit}-, 
the}' should have been called. It Avas not difiicult for the 
people of Upper Middlesex to fix upon the originals of the 
three justices. And I suppose the cases were not very 
grossl}' caricatured ; Mr. Justice Dix and Mr. Justice Russell, 
at least, being not over-learned in the law. GrifTin's bur- 
lesque on the Massachusetts Reports was exquisite. In one 
case, Dicques is represented as deferring judgment, because 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 531 

his " Indian Wars," which was the only book in his law 
libraiy, had been misplaced. The counsel in their argu- 
ments cite the Biglow Papers, Punch, Dr. Gannett, Trask's 
Sermon on Tobacco, P. B. Brigham's Hard Cases, and so on ; 
and the Latin and Norman-French lingo has a funny effect. 
Occasionally there is a genuine quotation from Metcalf's 
and other Massachusetts Reports thrown in very comicall}'. 
The reports are not much more absurd, however, than those 
in Allen and Gra}'. 

Among other writers for "Tlie Bag" were Trowbridge 
(then calling himself " Paul Creyton"), Florence Percy, C. 
C. Hazewell, John C. Moore (now of " The Boston Journal," 

— "Peter Snooks ") , George Canning Hill, W. D. O'Connor, 
"Ethan Spike" (a brother of John G. Whittier), and J. H. 
A. Bone, who is now editing "The Cleveland Herald," and 
writing for the monthly' magazines.^ Shillaber wrote Par- 
tingtonisms and Wideswarth sonnets ; and Benjamin Drew, 
an old " Boston-Post" joker (who two or three j'ears after- 
wards visited Canada, and wrote an interesting book about 
the fugitive slaves there) , furnished some humorous articles, 

— or so the}' seemed to me, — purporting to be by " Dr. E. 
Goethe Digg." I recall his toast, given at a Fourth-of-July 
celebration : — 

*' The Anglo-Saxons : They are the Saxons who are destined to dig 
the graves of all the other races. They will 

' Live through all life, extend to a great extent, 
Spread undivided, and operate wlierevcr they can make a cent.' " 

JUDGE SHARKEY THE UXJUST JUDGE, AND ELISHA BRAZEALLE. 

Once upon a time there lived in the County of Jefferson, 
State of Mississippi, a man named Elisha Brazealle. Being 
afflicted with a very loathsome disease, Brazealle was assidu- 

1 "Warrington" also contributed some papers to the Carpet-Bag; 
one signed "Bailey Junior" (see Appendix E), and four or five on 
"Ensign Stebbings," in wliom, as a candidate, he was very much inter- 
ested. He wrote articles in his favor for his paper, the Lowell Ameri- 
can, in 1852. 



532 ''WARRINGTON:" 

ousl}' nursed from death's door back to life again by an 
atfectionatc and faitliful female mulatto slave. I say 
"female " advisedlj' ; and I won't hear or read anj' sarcasm 
from an}- of 3'our critics on the use of the word. Slaves are 
not women, or ladies : the}' are only females, as the sequel 
of my little story will show. Brazealle, not altogether de- 
praved, took the faithful slave to Ohio, and showed his 
gratitude by educating her, and finally by marrying her. He 
also executed a deed for her emancipation, and had it 
recorded l)oth in Ohio and Mississippi ; to Avhich last-named 
State the couple returned. In process of time, the female 
whom Mr. Brazealle had married bore a son ; and, in process 
of time, the planter himself sickened again, and died ; taking 
care, however, to leave a will, in which, after reciting the 
deed of emancipation, he declared his intention to ratify it, 
and devised all his property to the boy, whom he acknowl- 
edged to be his son. You see what a bad man Brazeallr 
was. lie liad lived, in all probability, in a state of adultery ; 
and he had attempted to circumvent the laws of Mississippi, 
and the genius of the peculiar institution which has ruled us 
so long and so beneficently. But his sin sought out his con- 
cubine, and even his innocent son, and punished them for 
his iniquity ; and Judge Sharkey was the instrument, under 
Providence, of vindicating morality and the law. Thus it 
was : — 

In North Carolina lived some poor relations of Brazealle, 
of whom he, heartless infidel, knew nothing, and for whom 
he cared less. Their names are not given in the record 
before me ; but I dare say tliey are among the leading Union 
reconstructionists under Gov. Ilolden's regime. They heard 
of the death of their rich Mississippi cousin, or what not, 
and fortliwith, with a prudent, thrifty spirit Avhich does them 
immortal honor, set out for the South-West. They brought a 
suit. It is known and read of all men in Howard's Missis- 
sii)pi Reports, vol. ii. p. 837. It was the fortune of Shar- 
key the good to adjudicate upon the case. He declared 
the act of emancipation by Brazealle to "have had its 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 533 

origin in an offence against morality, pernicious and detesta- 
ble as an example ; " that tlie law of the State could not thus 
be evaded; and that "the negroes, John Monroe and his 
mother, are still slaves, and a part of the estate of Elisha 
Brazealle." "John Monroe," said Sharkey the benefi- 
cent, " cannot take the property as devisee, and it cannot be 
held in trust for him." Quite the contrary-. John, instead 
of having property, is himself property-, he and his mother ; 
and, so holding, Sharke}' delivered John and his mother over 
to the poor North-Carolina relations ; and they were lugged 
back to tliat State, unless they were sold in Mississii^pi to 
pa}^ the expenses of the suit. So was Brazealle the lewd 
circumvented by Sharke}' the pure ; so were the anarchical 
contrivances of Brazealle the lawless brought to nought by 
the legal wisdom and the stern morality of Sharkey the 
faithful. 

ENSIGN STEBBINGS, THE POLITICAL TRIMMER. 

[Compiled from "The Lowell American," with facts and extracts from 
"TheCarxjet-Bag."] 

In the old Stebbings mansion, which still adorns the 
village of Spunkville, and where once dwelt his grandfather, 
Septimius Stebbings, shielded from obnoxious atmospheric 
influence, the juvenile Jehiel Stebbings was born. Old 
Moloch Stebbings, his father, was one of Nature's noble- 
men ; and the Bumsteads, from whom the ensign is de- 
scended maternally, were alwa^'s a glorious famity. The 
Stebbings mansion has a gambrel roof; and there is no per- 
ceptible underpinning, — as who should saj-, " What need has 
the family of Stebbings of underpinning ? " The floors are of 
clear pine, well sanded ; the kitchen (or living-i-oom) is large, 
and well ventilated ; and the side over the big oak table is 
nearly covered Avith receipts, of which the following may 
serve as a specimen : — 

" How TO 51AVKE YE GooDLiE DouGHXUTTES. — Tayke two egges 
layed by ye heniie, a cuppe and a halfe of suggarre, niglie untoe two 
bigge spoonfulies of butter, a halfe-teaspoonfulle of ye soda, one do. 
creme of Tartars, half cuppe of ye miike of ye cowe, small lotte of 
nutmegge, flour ad libitumme." 



634 " WARRING TON: " 

The front-entry was adorned b3' a picture of the battle 
of Blenheim, done b}' the village painter, and called a 
"Gilchrist." Often did his wondering mother find Jehiel 
standing in silent admiration before that work of art, con- 
templating the fray with those emotions which are peculiar 
to the embr^-o soldier. That picture did much to form the 
character of our presidential nominee ; for, as he grew older, 
he developed a great desire for militar}- glory, and at an 
early age joined the Spunkville Light Infantry (called the 
S. L. I.'s), and very soon became their ensign and com- 
mander. The uniform of this company was unusual. Among 
its new features and conveniences it had a hook projecting 
from a rear portion of the pants, to which the soldier might 
hang his dress-boots in mudd}' weather, tin dipper, or an}' 
other light article of baggage. The hat, a helmet, sported 
an American eagle of brass, almost as large as life, with 
S. L. I. gushing from its beak.^ 

In spite of his warlike character, our hero was kind to his 
wife and to all others who were under or who belongetl to him. 
In speaking of his wife, he said, " Mrs. Ensign btcbbings is 
not one of the new-fangled fools who wear bloomers ; but 
she wears thirt3--five yards of cloth, honest measure, pinned, 
hooped, buttoned, or otherwise secured, about her waist. If 
I am made President, I shall encourage domestic manufac- 
tures b}- compelling the women to wear five yards more in 
the shape of a red-and-white striped bunting shawl. Ba}- 
States ! ^ — pooh ! I am for the United States." 

This ma}' be considered a prophetic remark ; for shortly 
after (in 1852), at the " Convention in Saugus," he received 
the nomination for President in opposition to two other regu- 
lar candidates.' This convention was packed, and the nom- 
ination was b}' acclamation ; for his friends had followed 

1 This uniform was designed by Capt. George H. Derby ("John 
Phopiiix"), .and, on account of the many conveniences attached to it, 
was called the Utilitarian Uniform. 

- Name of a shawl of the time. 

3 RexJorted by W. S. Robinson. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 535 

his advice given in a letter written by liim to the convention, 
and read by Brevet-Gen. Tompion, his voucher. The letter 
reads, — 

" I wish for the oflSce of President ; and, if I obtain it, I shall reward 
my friends, and punish my enemies. Every member of the Saugus 
Convention who votes for me shall receive either a post-office, or a 
place in the collection of customs. I would advise that you refuse a 
seat in the convention to every man who is not enrolled either in the 
army or navy of the United States. 

" Yours strategically, 

" Ensign Stebbings." 

This letter was received with enthusiastic cheers, and it 
was 

" Voted, That we agree to exclude all persons who are not enrolled 
according to the advice in the above letter." 

And 

" Resolved, That we go it blind for Ensign Jehiel Stebbings." 

The following platform was then adopted without a dis- 
senting voice : — 

Aktiole 1. The Constitution of the United States is that which 
constitutes. 

2. The army and navy constitute us a free people : therefore, — 

3. The army and the navy are the Constitution. 

4. The President swears to support the Constitution, — i.e., the 
army and navy: therefore, to do so understandingly, the President 
ought to be a military man. 

5. Ensign Jehiel Stebbings is a military man : it follows that he 
ought to be and must be President. 

6. Executive patronage is a power to be used only for a wise pur- 
pose : to do this requires a wise man. Ensign Stebbings is a wise 
man, therefore ought to wield executive patronage ; in other words, 
he must be President. In fact, from whatever point we start, we are 
driven to the same conclusion irresistibly. 

7. It is of no use to oppose the irresistible. All other candidates 
should, of course, withdraw from the contest. 

8. Governments are maintained by rewards and punishments; our 
government ought to be maintained : therefore Ensign Stebbings will 
reward his friends, and punish his enemies. 

14. Ensign Stebbings — he must be elected. 

The convention adjourned harmoniously, and the ensign 



536 "WARRINGTON:" 

went home to receive the congratulations of his fellow-towns- 
men. At the ratification meeting held in Spunkville he 
made a speech of acceptance, in which he said, " Here, 
wrapped aljout m}' left arm, you see the flag which I bore, 
and as I bore it from the Alamo, and as I flashed it in the 
ej-es of the British soldiers at the Aroostook" (he had been 
twitted with running from the enemy's wooden guns). "If 
this is not enough to qualify a man to become President of a 
great, free, warlike, and independent nation, I would like to 
know what is." (Applause.) " I have heard of Ptchoula, 
and I have heard of Russia leather, and law calf; but, gentle- 
men, I am of opinion that the smell of gunpowder is the true 
presidential perfume. Gentlemen, in your resolution on the 
tariff", there should have been this proviso : Provided, how- 
ever, that we are in favor of admitting free of duty all the 
munitions, implements, pomps, and circumstances of glori- 
ous war, such as tent-pins, haversacks, canteens, brandj-, 
sjKides, blunderbusses, omnibuses, and other materials for 
barricades, drag-ropes, pipe-clay, feathers, and over sixty 
other similar munitions, ending with wooden legs and surgi- 
cal instruments." (A voice in the crowd, " Go it, Stebbings ! 
that stamps your availabilit}' with the American people.") 

"Available or not, my opinion is that military glory is 
the only ti-ue national glory. Every man," he then resumed, 
" who is a member of any militar}' company, shall have a 
free pass over all the railroads in the Union, whether in time 
of peace or war ; and military stores and arm}' material shall 
be trans[)orted gratuitously." (Applause from the soldiers.) 
" I am in favor of high tariff" upon all articles except muni- 
tions of war. I go for cheap postage, roast beef, and two 
dollars a day. Where I put my foot, there I stand. I repre- 
sent a principle ; and that principle is bound to triumph. 
The india-rubbers of Civilization are always stained with 
human gore ; for, from the earliest conflict until now, the 
footsteps of her progress through the ages have been from 
the battle-fields of one generation to the battle-fields of the 
next. I oflfer myself, then, for the suffrages of the people." 



PEN-PORTBAITS. 537 

During the campaign, newspapers like " The Lowell 
American," "Clinton Courant " (Edwin Bj-nner, editor), 
and "The Carpet-Bag," that were not the organs of the reg- 
ular candidates, supported the ensign's claims to the presi- 
dency ; and the3^ printed column after column of " Opinions 
of the Press ' ' to show the feeling of the people in other 
States. 

"The Carpet-Bag" published an article, in which the 
writer made a calculation, showing how many electoral votes 
the ensign would receive. "We select the following extract. 
It was called 

THE GAME OF BRAG. 

" The election of Scott or Pierce being demonstrated to be impos- 
sible, it follows, of course, that Stebbings must be chosen. But we 
shall not stop here. We have a calculation of our own, favorable to 
Stebbings, which must satisfy the last remaining doubter in the land. 
Perhaps it will be surprising to some, that, in this calculation, we 
claim a large number of votes for Stebbings in Minnesota, Utah, 
New Mexico, Nebraska, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Patagonia. But it is 
time now to develop the plan of operations, which must come out 
very soon. 

"Ensign Stebbings is about to put himself at the head of an expedi- 
tion, which will probably, before November, result in the annexation of 
all these regions to the United States, in safety under the folds of the 
star-spangled banner. Long may it wave ! 

"The expedition to capture Buffalo Bay will not, probably, be 
sufficiently matured before next spring. We speak with caution. We 
say ' probably,' because it is not certain that these new States will be 
entitled to vote in November. We have placed them xuider the head 
of 'Doubtful for Stebbings.' We mean to be careful to avoid the 
vaunting tone which our enemies use, and which fills us with great 
disgust. 

*' We shall now proceed to speak of a few States which some of the 
other parties pretend to claim, and we shall show that Stebbings is 
the only individual who has any change of carrying them. 

" Massacuusetts. — As Stebbings gets the extreme South, so he 
sweeps through the extreme North. It may be said of him, that he 
knows no north, no south, no east, no west, no nothing. 

"New Hampshike. — We candidly admit that Pierce will make a 
good run in his own State ; but Peter Snooks, who, after leaving the 
Massacliusetts legislature, was immediately chosen a member of the 
New-Hampshire House of Kepresentatives, gives it as his opinion 
that Stebbings has the best chance. 



538 " WARRINO TON: " 

" South C.vrolixa is a State very hard to please ; but the well- 
known sentiments of Stebbings on the Cuba question will make him 
sure of the vote of that State. 

"Wisconsin. — The German vote is sure for Stebbings. In his 
letter to the 'Sonderbuiidholl-Verein,' the ensign states that he can 
play on the German flute, and is very fond of Bologna sausages ; which 
facts show that he is interested in foreign matters. 

"Georgia always votes for the successful candidate; of course, 
nhe is safe for Stebbings. Toombs are prepared for both the old cor- 
rupt organizations. 

" Maine. — The ensign's letter to the Mayor of Saccarap, on the 
Liquor Law, has made him immensely popular in Maine. He says, 

* I AM IN FAVOR OF THE LAW, AND OPPOSED TO ITS BEING PUT IN 

FORCE.' 1 Of course, he gets the support of both sections; the era of 
good feeling will return; the unhappy liquor-question will be compro- 
mised; ami Maine will help elect a chief magistrate whose Aroostook 
history will prevent any Blue-nose aggressions for half a century. 
Enough, and more than enough. Votes are the loeapons which do 
the business ; and Stebbings has the votes. We wait with serene con- 
fidence the great result." 

Besides being the great military candidate, it was claimed 
for him that he was also the great agricultural candidate ; and 
the farming interest was called upon to support him, because, 
for the last ten ^ears, he had annuallj- received the premium 
for the best fat ox in the county cattle-show, and that he 
first introduced the Borneo waddlers to the poultry-breeders 
of Spunkville. He had the earliest potatoes, the biggest 

1 In 1852 I was a good deal interested in the canvass for President, 
going in strongly for Ensign Stebbings; and I made a calriilation for 
the Caipet-IJag, which was his organ, showing tliat he would receive 
sonietliing more than twenty thousand electoral votes, — not mere poi^u- 
lar votes, of which a man may receive half a million, and yet have no 
good from them. He was going to receive the vote of Maine on the 
strength of his letter to the Mayor of Saccarap, declaring himself to be 
in favor of the Maine Law, and against its enforcement, and so on. I 
mention this here, that the standing joke of Stebbings and the Maine 
Law, which is now used pretty often in the newspapers, is "my thun- 
der." "A poor thing, but my own," as Touchstone says of Audrey. 
Now, it turned out that Stebbings got no votes. What was a feeble at- 
tempt at waggery in 1852 was deadly earnest in 1800. His oft -quoted 
remark, " that he was in favor of the Maine (Liquor) Law, but opposed 
to its being put in force," perfectly illustrates the character of all 
political trimmers. — W. S. R. in 18G9. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 539 

turnips, the heaviest wheat, the j-ellowest carrots, and the 
smallest mustard, of any man in New England ; and his 
"deep phalanx of embattled corn" excited the admiration 
of everybod}'. He was engaged at this time in the manu- 
facture of tomato-ketchup : hence the fling of his opposers, 
who called him The Tomato- Ketchup candidate. He was 
great at cattle-shows, and made speeches at all the agricultu- 
ral dinners, and paraded his militar}- and other achievements. 
There was not a schoolhouse or a pig-pen built in the neigh- 
borhood but he was at the " raising," and showed himself to 
his constituents. 

Stories were in circulation about this great statesman and 
hero, — of how he helped a poor widow to win her case (she 
had sons who could vote for /«"m), and gave hundreds of 
cents to colored women (who had husbands, voters) for their 
children, and so made himself popular with the people. His 
picture was taken for circulation (in " The Carpet-Bag ") ; a 
sword was presented to him (which beat the brand Excalibur 
all to flitters), called the " Stebbings sword;" and a ship 
was launched, and named b}- him " The Jehiel Stebbings." 
Political clubs were organized. From "The Lowell Ameri- 
can ' ' we copy an account of the 

SHABBAKIN STEBBINGS CLUB. 

" There is now a good degree of unanimity prevailing in the club. 
Headquarters have been established, a flag thrown out; and 'The 
Carpet-Bag ' and other publishers of papers have been written to, to 
supply the club gratis with their valuable sheets. The last meeting 
was very enthusiastic. The managing committee presented the. fol- 
lowing names as honorary members, and they were unanimously 
accepted : lion. Jethro Hitchcock of Squam ; Hon. Gad Bulger of 
Squam; Hon. Abraham Lot of Hardscrabble ; Gabriel Pinchbeck, 
Esq., Calf Hollow; Peter B. Funk, Esq., Beg Sodus Bay; James B. 
X. L. Y. Smithers, Esq., Donnowhere; Hon. Peleg Percival Polk, 
Punkinville; Hon. Eldad W. Mruppins, Poplar Hill; Cain Webster 
Burke, Esq., Shabbakin; Alonzo George Milksop, Esq., Thunder- 
borough; B. Franklin Muggins, Spunkville; Jehiel Stebbings, 
Spunkville; Cornet Wiggin, Spunkville; Deacon Israel Mawworm, 
Pulpitville ; Capt. Boanerges Bashaw, Misery X Roads ; Col. Asher 
P. Flimflaw, Four Corners; Porpoise T, Walrus, Esq., Shabbakin; 



540 " WAIililXG TON: " 

Beerbarrol Skid, Esq., Grocerville ; Card G. Stripper, Esq., Cotton- 
town; Capt. Eli Herringbone, Oyster Bay; Richelieu O'Flannegan, 
Bailybogusvllle; Diebitsch Von Kaunier Poniatowski, LL.D., Baden- 
Baden ; Dr. Esculapius Pestle, Thoroughwort Corner. 

"It will be seen that all classes are here represented, natives and 
foreigners, lawyers, deacons, doctors, farmers, and mechanics., All 
sections are also honored ; for, as ' The Carpet Bag ' patriotically 
remarks, Stebbings ' knows no north, no south, no east, no west, no 
nothing.' After this important, weighty, tremendous, ponderous, and 
awful business was completed, several speeches were made, of which 
a full report may be found in the daily organ of the Shabbakin Steb- 
bingsonians. The cause is onward, and the cheering is tremendous ! 
Skies bright! Nine million cheers for the nomernees! Whoorayl" 

It was at this meeting that the celebrated toast or senti- 
ment was offered b^- the Hon. Eldad W. Mnii)pins of Poplar 
Hill, Dedham: "To that gorgeous ensign of our republic, 
Ensign Stebbings ! " 

Estimates of , his political strength were taken in various 
towns and states, and sent to "The Carpet-Bag." One 
from Owl Hollow, Ind., reads as follows : — 

"Mb. Editou, — At a meeting of the citizens of this place at the 
post-oflBce yesterday eve, a vote was taken for President, the result 
of which is as follows : — 

Stebbings . 2 

Scott 1 

Douglas 

Majority for Stebbings 1 

" G. Washington Gawkins, P.M." 

But, in spite of the promises and efforts of his friends, there 
was a great falling-off of voting-force as election drew near. 
His teachings went against him ; and his doctrines, as in the 
case of Socrates and other eminent men, killed him : for his 
pretended supporters carried the princii)le advocated in his 
famous saying about the Maine Liquor Law to the ballot-box ; 
and, while believing in him as a candidate, they voted directly 
for his opponent ; and tlie great Stebbings got absolutely no 
votes. He, however, had found out in season how the thing 
was turning, and, a few days before election, sent a despatch 



PEN-POETBAITS. 541 

to his friends through "The Lowell American," defining 
his position. We copy the despatch and the editor's com- 
ments. 

Spunkvtlle, Nov. 1, 11.10 p.m. 

To MI Feends, — This ere is to giv notis that i am not a candy- 
date for the ofl&ss of President. Tough are all advysed to vought for 
Purse, hoo has promised to turn out old Scott and put me in Kom- 
mander in Cheef. Jehiel Steebings, Enaign. 

This despatch was forthwith sent upon the ver^' swiftest 
streaks of lightning to all parts of this universal nation ; 
and it is a remarkable triumph of the Spunkville, &c., Tele- 
graph Compan}-, that not a Stebbings man in any State in 
the Union, except a few in the comparativelj- thinly -peopled 
States of Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, 
failed to receive the intelligence. The knowledge that this 
despatch was about to be sent will account for the confidence 
which was felt by "Purse" and his intimate friends in the 
result. " Jack Hail and his cru," remarked the ensign 
subsequently, " thort they hild the ballunses of power ; but I 
gess the ballunses was in stiddier hands than thairn," We 
guess so too. 

This statement of facts will account for the non-election 
of Stebbings, and the triumphant election of Pierce, and will 
put to shame those editors, pretending to be friends of the 
illustrious and magnanimous old chief, who have reported 
that he has resigned himself to "mute despair." No such 
thing ! Jehiel Stebbings will be the back-bone, right-arm, 
eye-tooth, sword, spurs, and Paixhan cannon of the new ad- 
ministration. Let his enemies, and the enemies of Pierce, 
beware ! 

[Nov. 27, 1875.] 
HENRY WILSON. 

The estimates made of the late Vice-President's character 
have been singularly accurate generall}', although there have 
been occasional errors as to fact and date. Perhaps it is 
fair to say, that the biographical sketches have been more 



542 ''WARRINGTON:" 

truthful than accurate. For instance, when it is said that 
"Wilson was the founder of the Republican part}", a queer mis- 
take is made ; for he did not even vote with that part}' till 
185G, — two years after it was founded : j'ct, for all that, he 
was so linked with the measures, and so associated with the 
men and ideas, that he ma}- be fairly called one of the princi- 
pal founders. These foundations of parties are more apt to 
be the work of the men who nominally serve in the ranks 
than of the more prominent men. 

They will show you in Jackson, Mich., a court-house or 
town-house, where the}' say the first Republican meeting was 
held, and the name first formally given. But these events 
were nearly simultaneous. The State organization here was 
in 1854 : but Wilson was in the Know-Nothing party, and, a 
year later, was elected to the Senate of the United States 
by that party ; his chief competitors being E. M. Wright 
(in the Senate) and N. B. Bryant (in the House), — men of 
the obscure sort, who in that party would be sure to be 
talked of, but who would not have been mentioned at all in 
a large party in this State, based in any degree on anti- 
slavery principles. Wilson had 21 votes, just a majority of 
the Senate, and about 230, I believe, in the House. He 
further identified himself with the party by attending a 
supper in honor of Gardner's election, and by a letter to 
Robert B. Hall, written for the average Know-Xothing, to 
show to his constituents as evidence that the new senator 
was all right. In spite of all this, however, "Wilson had in 
view the formation of a new national organization in 1856. 
How it was to come he didn't probably know nor care. 

In the fall of 1855 he supported Rockwell, and made a 
speech at Brattleborough, Vt., denouncing the Know-Xoth- 
ings in advance for any attempted defection from antislavery 
principles. He told C. W. Dennison, and doubtless a hun- 
dred others, that he would "blow their party to hell" if 
they showed any sign of such defection. In fact, he was 
more sensitive on this point than any others, where he, for 
expediency's sake, deflected from correct action and prin- 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 543 

ciple. And this indicates, wliat is most true, that these 
deflections were extremely few. Mr. S. C. Phillips, Mr. 
C. F. Adams, and J. G. Palfre}^ thought " the coalition," or 
at least some of the movements attending it, indispensable ; 
but it seems to me opinions might fairly differ on this point. 
Defensible or not, it was inevitable. 

In 1848 and 1849 the votes had shown that the Whigs 
were in a minorit}'' in the State ; that the legislature could 
be carried against them, and the offices thereafter divided. 
The delegates to the county conventions saw this, and — 
though not without difficulties, and with frequent going-out 
and coming-in of conference committees — arranged the 
details for electing a majority of the legislature. At this 
time, it must be borne in mind that the Democrats had not 
been in office in the State since Morton's day, and that 
Morton was a liberal, and also that they were out of power 
in national affairs. Boutwell, their candidate for governor, 
was neither for nor against the abolitionists, but was a strict 
part3'-man, as always, and held his party together very well. 
Sumner was chosen senator ; and in this work Wilson took 
a leading part ; Mr. S. C. Phillips, Mr. Adams, and J. G. 
Palfre}', for various reasons, taking small part in it, though 
not (as es-Gov. Morton did) breaking out in rebellion 
during the contest. Wilson did not flinch from the coali- 
tion, or from its consequences. He wrote a letter, which is 
extant and in print, giving all the details as to the green- 
room events, — who was to have all the councillors, and all 
that sort of thing ; and, furthermore, it was easy at the State 
House to make it appear that the two branches had, or could 
persuade themselves that they had, certain views on legis- 
lation in common, — such as, for example, Mr. Whitnej^'s 
General Banking Law, the Secret Ballot Act, &c. Pierce 
was chosen President in 1852 ; and it became then more diffi- 
cult to keep the two parties together, although Pierce before 
or after his election, or both, talked about antislavery. Mr. 
Philander Ames, then of Charlestown, told me that he was 
called in with other Democrats to see Pierce, who, before the 



544 "WARRIXGTOX :" 

meeting broke up, laid his hand affect ionatel}- on Mr. Ames's 
shoulder, and said, " If I am elected, Mr. Ames, the South 
t\-ill find out that there is a North." 

The Constitutional Convention of 1853 was harmonious as 
between the two wings ; but its work, the amended Constitu- 
tion, was defeated at the polls. On this question the detes- 
table element of religious strife was lugged in, witliout an}' 
better reasons than the Republican part}' has for lugging 
it in (through Grant's speech at Des Moines, and in Ohio 
for the defeat of Allen). The secret societies began to 
spread. Wilson, a politician with nothing to do, and a 
sincere desire to break and build, favored it ; Burlingame 
helped him, with many of the 3'oung stump-orators ; Banks 
was a little later ; Gardner was nominated without much 
forethought, probabl}' ; and the result was a large Know- 
Nothing majority in 1854 in the State, a disgusting legis- 
lature, and, in 1855, an earl}' protest in the shape of 
Rockwell's nomination. It Avill easily be seen how Wilson 
got into this, and how he got out, and how glad he was to 
get out. 

Mr. Wilson's character and history and manners show 
that he had as little sympathy with any religious opposition 
to any class, or with opposition to any class on the ground 
of birth or any other accident, as any man could have, — as 
little as Andrew, who always seemed to me to be the ideal 
democrat, and more than that ; for he seemed actually to 
love the poor, the outcast, the black (especially), and all 
men who, for whatever reason, were under society's ban. 
Wilson had not this (possibly because it requires humor) ; 
but he was in all respects a democrat. This led him, ever 
after 1855, not only to renounce the Know-Nothings, but 
every thing belonging to them. He opposed the ' ' Two-years' 
Amendment," debating the question with Amasa Walker, 
and going against the whole Boston press, or nearly all of it, 
and (as it turned out) the popular vote. I dare say he was 
stimulated to this by the protests of the Iowa Republicans 
and others. At this time (1859) Carl Schurz made his first 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 545 

visit here ; and there was a revival of Jeffersonian polities at 
the Jefferson dinner, with Boutwell for presiding officer, to 
which Abraham Lincoln wrote a famous letter, showing that 
he, too, was a democrat in the primeval sense. ^ 

Wilson had a respect for learning, a love of information, 
a deference for the college degree, and the other evidence 
(whether in sheepskin diploma, or in clerical or judicial 
costume) of contact with the college gatewa3's ; but he could 
be nothing but a democrat ; and his sneer at the snob, Amer- 
ican or English, was something exquisite. Sumner's democ- 
racy, more genuine in some respects than Wilson's, was 
based on a love of justice and equalit}', and a determination 
to have them, and, in this respect, was a more difficult ac- 
quirement than Wilson's. Satisfy Sumner that justice and 
equality were in one path, and all else political or legislative 
in the other, aud he took the right side, and never seemed 
to imagine there was any possibility of his taking the other. 
He was apt to finish up one thing before he took the next. 
But while Wilson (at some risk) was supporting the " Amer- 
ican " party, Sumner was on the stump, denouncing it, and, 
a j-ear or two before his death, had accepted the doctrine of 
equality for woman in suffrage ; though, not being a man in 
search of platforms, and averse to speech-making without 
preparation, he felt no call to make proof of his belief by 
stepping up and taking a seat, as so man}' do who never 
intend to do aught but stand up once a year to" be counted. 

Of Wilson's immense amount of labor in the great work 
of his life, it is unnecessary to speak ; and whether it was a 
little greater or a little less than that of other men seems 
unimportant, and, at any rate, must be settled by every intel- 
ligent antislaver}^ man for himself. 

[Lowell American, Nov. 1, 1852.] 
DANIEL WEBSTER. 

The death of Mr. Webster made a gi'cat impression upon' 
the countr3\ There were hundreds of thousands of better 

1 See Appendix F. 



546 "WARRINGTON:" 

men in it, and manj- of our distinguished men have had 
more attached and warmer friends ; but there was no man 
who so attracted public admiration by his massive intellect 
and commanding presence. We fear it must be said of him 
what Carlyle says of Mirabeau, " Moralities not a few must 
shriek condemnatory over this Mirabeau." Perhaps ''the 
moralit}' by which he could be judged has not yet got uttered 
in the speech of men." Yet men's admiration for his mas- 
terly mind leads the whole countrj' to sorrow for his death 
as the death of its greatest man. This is well. The last 
three j-ears of Mr. "Webster's political life were filled with 
events, which, unless the New-England conscience is wholly 
corrupted by the lust of gain, must detract largely" from the 
estimation in which he would otherwise be held. Criticism 
will not be silenced, and histor}- will give him his true place. 
But all men can afford to wait for the verdict. The great 
statesman and the eloquent orator sleeps at Marshfield, near 
the " sounding sea : " — 

" Timon hath made his everlasting mansion 
Upon the beached verge of the salt flood, 
Which once a day with his embossed froth 
The turbulent surge shall cover." 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 547 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE WOMAN QUESTIOK 

[1851-1876.] 

"The woman's hour is struck, or is striking. The woman-suffrage question 
entirely supersedes in popular interest the old antislavery question. The negro 
is no better than anybody else, at present: he has had his day. Enter woman." — 
■Wahrdigton. 

woman's rights.^ 

Everybody knows that women are shut, out from the col- 
leges where the highest education is souglit ; and it makes 
no difference whether they are debarred bj^ law or by custom, 
so long as thej' are under the ban of exclusion. It is cer- 
tainly a queer idea, that woman ought to be satisfied with 
acquiring knowledge, without having an opportunity to put it 
in practice, except in her own affairs. She can learn chem- 
istry, and may be profoundl}' skilled in that art ; but her 
knowledge must be used in household occupations, and not 
made available in the arts and sciences, where man is 
allowed to become eminent and acquire wealth. This very 
fact, that woman cannot put her learning into practice, is 
one of the grievances she has to complain of. 

For our part, we suppose that the Almighty designed that 
both man and woman should have the highest intellectual 
and moral culture of which thej- are capable. Who set up 
an}^ man as a judge of what is woman's sphere, or of what 
the Almighty Maker designed her to be ? 

1 Lowell American, in 1851. 



548 " WARRINGTON: " 

WOMAN-SUFFRAGE A RIGHT. 

Mr. English of Hartford said that wives ought to talk 
politics ; for, if they did not, their husbands would find 
women who did. To talk politics at liomc was, not to make 
home a scene of discord, but of interest and harmony. A 
point well taken. I heard a woman say, that if tiie women 
were not before long allowed, or in some wa}' induced, to 
take an interest in public affairs, the}' would ruin their hus- 
bands and the country b}- their fashionable extravagance, 
thej' having nothing else to think of, and being obliged to 
think of something (which is another point well taken) . On 
the general ground, then, that the state will be the better 
for the co-operation of woman, as the church, the l3-ceum, 
the school, art, literature, religion, are better, this move- 
ment is to be defended. "We have had enough of repl}' to 
the Dr. Todds, and Dr. Hollands, and Rev. Fultons. The 
Bible argument, if there is one, impresses nobody* now ; 
for a large share of the people don't accept the Bible at all 
as a guide in such matters, denying its authorit}', or its 
inspiration, or its applicability to our own times, or, in some 
other wa}', getting round it : and the whole batch of anti- 
female-sutfrage fallacies has been knocked in the head so 
man}- times, that even the D.D's, or most of them, are now 
ashamed to reproduce them. St. Paul, it may be conceded, 
was a great theologian and moralist, and Tenn3son a great 
poet ; but it is of not much more use to quote either of them 
against the rights of woman than the Pittsfield doctor of 
divinity. To the argument for woman-sufl!\-age there is no 
valiil reply by anybody. 

What reason is there for believing that political meetings 
would be any more detrimental to good morals, or a healthful 
state of society, than an}' other gatherings — social, educa- 
tional, religious — to which both sexes are invited? Why, 
one would think, to hear some of the speeches and lectures 
on this subject, that we shall be likely to have a repetition of 
the Sabine-women affair, if a hundred or two hundred persons 



PE2T-P0RTRAITS. 549 

of opposite sexes meet together to consult upon affairs of 
state, cit}', or town. Instead of being the most orderl}' and 
respectable, as well as altogether the most delightful, wa}' of 
spending one's time, one would think that a social gathering 
of men and women, if by any chance it is turned into a meet- 
ing for a public purpose, would necessarily be a tumultuous 
and obscene crowd, carefully to be watched by the police, 
and possibly by the militar3\ Women are frequentl}^ asked 
to vote at lectures : the}' choose presidents of lyceums b}' 
hand- vote. Suppose the}' should vote by ballot : does au}'- 
body suppose there would be a mob, with the fire-alarm, the 
watchman's rattle, and the reading of the Riot Act? It is 
really about time for these childish arguments against female 
suffrage to be dismissed. If we don't choose to grant it, 
very well ; but let us fall back on our reserved right not to 
give any reason, and simply say, " You shall not, and 
there's an end of it." 

Shall not women decide the question? Yes, just as they 
decide other questions. They shall decide the question as 
to whether the}' will go to college, or to the counting-room, 
or the farm, or anywhere else. Do we propose to ask the 
majority of women in Danvers, for instance, whether Sally 
Ann shall go to Vassar College or not? or take the vote 
of the neighborhood as to whether Emily Jane shall go to 
Milan to get a musical education? I guess not. These 
things are to be left to the individual woman, not to the 
mass. And so of voting. If the majority of women do not 
desire to vote under the amended Constitution, let them stay 
at home. There are elections, plenty of them, in which half 
the men do not vote. Do the stay-at-homes feel aggricA'cd ? 
They are ashamed of themselves, doubtless ; but they do not 
complain, nor do they think it a hardship. Some one says 
that woman's right to vote depends on her nature. If it is 
her nature to vote, it is her right to vote. Well, I don't 
know how we can determine this question, except by lea\ ing 
the opportunity of choice. How is it to be fairly ascertained 
whether it is a woman's nature to vote, if she is told, the 



550 " WARRINGTON: " 

moment she is old enough to speak the word "governor" 
or the word "politics," that it is of no consequence to her 
■who the "governor" is, and that she can never have an^' 
thing to do with "politics"? The voting nature never de- 
veloped itself in the black people until within a jear or two ; 
nor in the white men, ver^- largely", until the Revolution : it is 
just developing itself in England, and has not yet begun to 
develop itself in Austria. Nature is, in fact, as far as this 
is concerned, a matter of education; and it is begging the 
question to say women ought to be educated up to the desire 
to vote. The way to educate them in public affairs is to set 
them to voting as fast as they desire to vote ; for the woman- 
intellect is as capable of talking and understanding politics 
as the man-intellect. Education before the ballot is, in its 
relation to government, putting the cart before the horse. 
The ballot is education in government. 

It is not at all necessary- for the friends of woman-suffrage 
to take the ground that suffrage is a right. All the}' need 
claim is, that, if it is a right, women have an equal right to 
it ; or that, if it is a privilege, women have an equal privi- 
lege. If it depends on religion, religious women must have 
it ; if on education, educated women must have it ; if on 
property, women of property must have it ; if on muscle, 
muscular women must have it ; if on the family relation, the 
female twin-head of the family must have it ; and bachelors, 
and men without f:\milies, must give wa}' to the claims of 
wives and mothers. If birthright, if American democratic 
ideas, confer the right, or if capacity alone confers it, — 
either way, the claim of W'Oman is irrefragable ; and all 
there is left is the debate among the voters as to whether 
the}' will, or how soon the}' will, yield that mere exercise of 
forceful authority which is the only tenure of their superi- 
ority in politics and government. 

Loose-jointed arguers and foolish alarmists, who are 
frighted at the idea that the twent}- thousand prostitutes 
of New-York City are going to the ward-meetings en masse 
to adil ih'Av numerical strength to that of the dangerous 



PEN-PORTRAITS. , 551 

classes who now rule there, may dismiss their fears as to any 
evil likely to come from this reform either to religion or 
politics. 

I believe I am as firm as an}- man on the right side of this 
question ; but, when the consummation is reached, I expect 
to see, for a time at least, so many absurd things done by 
the new voters, that the faith of all, except the securely- 
grounded ones (to which class I belong), will be Avidely 
shaken. In those days, Todd and Fulton and Bushncll, and 
Carlos White, and the rest, will be round, bus}- as bees, with 
their " I told j'ou so ! " and their " Don't you see what fools 
those women out in Pumpkintown have made of themselves ? ' ' 
and their " What do you think now? " and their " See what 
3"ou come to when yon abandon the Bible, and disregard the 
apostle Paul!" and (still worse) their "We must go back 
to the good old times." We, who have summered and win- 
tered this question from the abolitionist's point of view for 
twent}' or thirty years, shall be able to answer such superficial 
cries ; but I am afraid some of the sentimental converts will 
be sadly shaken up b}' the re-action which maj- follow. 

The men are making more or less progress in the true the- 
or}' of government. We are getting toward free play., and 
shall b}' and b}' be satisfied that the least quantity' of govern- 
ment consistent with public safet}- and order and individual 
freedom is best. But the new voters will have to tr^- their 
hand, and see the foil}' of a thousand things which we now 
see the folly of. We shall have organization where none is 
needed, ten times as many committees as can be made use- 
ful, enough vice-presidents and secretaries and trustees to 
take up all, and more than all, the available material for such 
purposes, ten thousand reports from ten thousand depart- 
ments, and more points of order than were ever ch-eamed of 
by the most hacknejed parliamentarian. 

It is thought to be an overwhelmiug argument that women 
ought not to vote, because it would be awkward to have a 
wife in labor called away from her home to take a seat upon 
the bench of the Supreme Court. This is the favorite point 



552 "WARRINGTON:" 

in conversation on tlie subject. Can a woman in labor dig 
potatoes? Can a woman in labor drive a horse to plough? 
Of course not. I am going to write a treatise on this very 
point, and shall annihilate Abb}- May, and all the visionaries 
who talk about horticultural pursuits. I shall ask most 
respectfully what warrant there is in the Scripture for set- 
ting women to work raising asparagus. I shall follow the 
Rev. James Reed, and, taking a text from Deuteronomy, 
show that, because the Jews had a police regulation against 
women wearing men's garments, therefore women should not 
kill cauker-worms ; and then I shall triumphantly ask if 
men have not raised the best potatoes and turnips hitherto, 
and if this is not evidence that the}' are all-sufficient for this 
purpose hereafter. Even tlie potatoes themselves have eyes 
enough to see this. Incidentally, I shall overthrow all the 
other claims that are made in favor of more diversified occu- 
pations for women ; for they can all be annihilated by the 
same reasoning which is so effective on the suffrage-question. 
It is possible that we shall let the normal-school girls and 
others continue to teach ; • that innovation seems to have 
gone too far to be checked : and I am inclined to think that 
the female teachers are rather more disposed to flog than the 
males ; and, if this is so, the}' are fulfilling the Old-Testa- 
ment idea, and an exception may be made in their case. 
But, if we cannot resist the beginnings, we can at least put 
a stop to further progress. The wonian-in-hibor argument, 
which is, of course, the best one, will not apply in all cases ; 
but we shall have the Bible and cartoon, and (what is better 
than all the rest) the argument of "I won't!" and "You 
sha'n't ! " and " I don't want my sister or daughter to go to 

1 We talk about female school-teachers as if they were a modern 
invention. Men at the ago of lifty and ^xty, at least, can remember 
their old "school-ma'ams; " and, in some genealogical researches, I 
found a reminiscence of a woman who kept a '' pastry-school " in Dos- 
ton a hundred years ago, and wrote poetry for the newspapers about 
the destruction of the tea in the harbor. The local histories are full of 
evidence that there were no legal barriers against the employment of 
women then. 



PEN-POBTRAITS. 553 

a caucus ; " and these will last a good while. I have hopes, 
that, if we all take hold with our mops, the Atlantic Ocean 
may be kept back three or four years longer, to say the 
least. 

Here is a question of right, necessaril}" a question of con- 
stitution and statute, w^hich must be settled, in the tirst 
instance, by voting, and which, like the antislavery cause, 
is a fairer matter for political action than any one of the ten 
thousand questions of philanthrop}' — such as the licensing 
of dram-shops, capital punishment, flogging of children in 
schools, Sunda}' libraries, prison-discipline, divorce, labor, 
and so on — which it is substantially impossible to make a 
political party out of, or one which will last a great while. 
Those who are opposed to the continued subjection of woman 
would be justified in rallying as a party, because to deny one- 
half the human race the exercise of an inalienable right is 
a wrong justifying extreme measures. If the time is ripe 
for a movement, not complicated with others, let it come. 
The opposition to woman-suffrage is based on a prejudice 
which is just as artificial^ and as little natural^ as the preju- 
dice against negro-voting, w'hich ten 3'ears ago, even in such 
States as Connecticut and New York, Avould have been 
sworn to by the average voter as an ordinance of Divine 
Providence, which must forever keep the two colors apart at 
the polls. Do awa}' with the restriction, by main strength or 
by " accident," of a judicial decision, and nobody will think 
of it again, except as a reminiscence of superstition and injus- 
tice. The argument which overbears the demand for woman- 
suiTrage is, that woman is unfit for it. The apparent reason 
for this is a total lack of experience and responsibilit3% Men 
have kept women from government ever since the world 
began, and now insist that the hands the}' haA^e cut off shall 
work, the eyes the}- have put out shall see, the ears the}' have 
stopped up shall hear. This is unreasonable ; but there is 
so much the more reason why women should not rush into 
amateur government, which will onl}' increase the volume of 
the cry against their incapacit}'. The whole matter must be 



554 • ' WARRING TON : ' ' 

argued years and j-ears longer in all its branches, before any 
voting can be done : and the question has got to be settled 
by the votes of the men, in the last resort ; and the appeal 
must be made to them to grant, as well as to the women to 
ask for, the right of suiTrage. 

A good deal of time is wasted in the utterly irrelevant 
discussion, whether suffrage is a natural right or not. "Who 
cares whether it is or not? Suffrage is a modern invention ; 
hardly, in its present scope, more than a hundred years old, 
and not much more than twice as old as the right to ride in 
railroad-cars. If voting is not a natural right, it is because 
voting was never heard of in a state of nature. All that is 
necessary to show is, that the right, whether natural or con- 
ventional, or by whatever name it is called, is equal in 
woman and man. The proper waj- to put it is, that the 
woman has a natural right to equal it}- in the use of the 
means and weapons of government, under whatever govern- 
ment, and whatever processes are employed. A good deal 
of time is also wasted in replying to the absurd pretext, that 
men alone must vote, because men alone can defend the gov- 
ernment in time of war. Where did this notion come from? 
I don't believe it is possible to lind, in an}- constitution, law, 
treatise on government, or an}' thing else, a paragraph from 
any respectable source which connects the right of suffrage 
with the cluty of bearing arms : if there is an}', I ha\ e never 
seen it. In point of fact, during the late war, our soldiers 
in camp, the men who bore the brunt of the war, were not 
alloioed to vote, while the stay-at-homes were ; and the 
people refused to alter the Constitution so that their votes 
could be taken as the votes of soldiers of other States were 
talvcn. 

CAN WOMEN HOLD JUDICIAL OFFICES ? — JUDGE WHEEL- 
GREASE'S OPINION IN 1871. 

The opinion of the Supreme Court on the woman-question 
has put a broad grin on everybody's face. Sonic of the 
lawyers thought it a well-contrived ho:\x ; but there seems 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 555 

to be no doubt of its genuineness : indeed, the decision is 
quite in the line with most of the decisions of the present 
court. You know it is quite a modern court, Judge Chap- 
man's commission only dating as far bacli as 1860. Judge 
Gray came in in 1864 ; Judge Wells, in 1866 ; Judge Colt, 
in 1868; Judge Ames and Judge Morton, in 1869. Judges 
Shaw, Bigelow, Hoar, Foster, Merrick, Metcalf, Dewey, 
Thomas, have all left, in one way or another, witliin the last 
dozen 3-ears ; and 3'ou see what a mess they have made of it. 
However, there is no danger that the thing will ever be worse 
than it is now. Of course, nobody will employ any of these 
men as lawyers after this ; and, even if Judge Colt should 
go back to railroad practice, there would be a rush of legal 
noodles to the governor's room for his place, encouraged b}' 
the late decision. If the governor should say to the appli- 
cant, " Sir, give me some evidence of ^-our legal capacity," 
the answer would be obvious: "Your Excellenc}', that 
qualification was done away with when the court gave its 
opinion on the question of female justices, and when 30U 
followed it." I have been examining this decision in a his- 
torical point of view, to ascertain, if possible, whether or 
not there is an}^ similar case on record. I cannot find any 
case exactl}' like it ; but there was a transaction in the town 
of Pigsgusset, Bristol County, some time within the last 
quarter of a centur}^ which seems to have some resemblance 
to it. There was an article in the warrant relative to the fill- 
ing of a vacanc}^ upon the school con^mittee. Rev. Arthur 
Jenkins having been suddenl}' called away to a better world. 
Somebod}' proposed the name of his widow, Jerusha (Bum- 
stead) Jenkins, who, it was well knoAvn, had written all his 
school-reports, and most of his sermons, for j'ears. This was 
thouglit to be a joke at first ; but the people of Pigsgusset be- 
gan to inquire, " Wh}' not? " and the thing seemed likelj' to 
go, when old Dr. Gad Smith rose, and, to gain time, moved 
that the subject be laid upon the table. Hcnr}' Sawin, a 
bright young fellow just out of college, raised the " point of 
order," that the town had no table; and Squire Hatliawa}-, 



656 ''WARJilNGTOX :" 

the moderator, said the point was "well taken;" and Oli- 
ver Greenloaf, the constable, was directed to procure one ; 
but, finding some difficulty, the meeting was adjourned till 
the next Monday. Of course, the town was in a hubbub. 
Conservative and radical had it, " hip and thigh," all over 
the village, from Tuesda}* morning to the da}' of the meet- 
ing. The grocer3--storcs were crowded with disputants from 
morning till night. " I tell you, you can't do it ! " — '' Wh^' 
can't you?" — "Because j-ou can't!" This was the bur- 
den of the discussion, as it always is between the two 
classes of opinions, ending with the inevitable conclusion, 
"Well, I don't see why;" or, "We'll see if we can't." 
Town-meeting came, Ilathawa}^ still in the chair ; and the 
struggle was close. Finally, just as they were going to put 
it to vote, up jumped Adonijah Bourne, and moved that the 
subject be referred to old Judge Whcelgrease for his opinion. 
Wheelgrease had been judge of the Court of Sessions, and 
justice of the peace, referee, and all sorts of things ; and 
though never ver}^ bright, and then pretty much in his 
dotage, was still reputed to be "learned in the law." The 
motion took with all the conservatives, who know what the 
old judge would say, and with the laz}- and timid ones, who 
wanted to escape responsibilit}'. Even the man who first 
proposed the name of the Widow Jenkins fell in with it, and 
said, " Well, perhaps we'd better, if there's an}- doubt 
about it." So the meeting was adjourned for another week. 
Then there was another crowd. It had leaked out that old 
Wheelgrease had been round, asking all the justices of the 
peace in the county, whom he could find, what their opinion 
was, and all the school-committee-men besides ; and, on 
the opening of the meeting, the following document was 
read : — 

PiGSOCSSF.T, Miircll — , IS — . 

Gentlemkx, — In reply to a vote of the town, conveyed to me in 
a note from Jefferson Phelps, town-clerk, I have the honor to say, 
By the laws of this Commonwealth, the office of school committee is 
an executive office, and must be exercised by the officer in person ; and 
a woman — whether married or unmarried, whether spinster, wife, or 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 557 

widow — cannot be appointed to such an office. I have inquired of 
the oldest inhabitants of Pigsgusset and of all the neighboring towns, 
and have diligently searched the town-records, and, as far as possible, 
all the old Indian and colonial titles, and find no account of a woman 
being chosen to such an office. There is, in the record for 1808, a 
statement that Polly Spurr was elected in the spring of that year ; 
but upon inquiry of Eldad Spurr, now living at an advanced age, I 
find that Polly Spurr was not a woman, but a man, being named for 
his iincle, Pelatiah Polly, then of Scarborough. The whole frame 
and purport of the law, and the universal understanding and un- 
broken practical construction, for the greater part of a century, all 
support this conclusion, and are inconsistent with any other. It fol- 
lows, that, if the Widow Jenkins should be elected, she would have 
no legal authority to exercise the functions appertaining to the 
office. 

I append a certificate, signed by several gentlemen learned in the 
law whom I have consulted on this point. 

Sheaujasiiub Wiieelgrease, LL.D., 

Late Judr/e of the Court of Sessions. 

The undei'sigued agree with the conclusions arrived at by Judge 
Wheelgrease : — 

Samuel Purinto:?^, LL.D., 
Eliakim Parsons, A.M., 
B. Brown Butterfield, M.D., 
Thaddeus Slocum, 
Justices of the Peace for all the Counties. 
Ei.KANAH Moody, A.M., D.D., 
Preacher of Election Sermon (1803). 

Note. — Dr. Butterfield adds in a private letter, that the thing is settled by 
philological considerations ; for a member of the school committee has always, to 
the best of his knowledge and belief, been spoken of as a " school-committee- 
man." This unbroken construction seems to me to be worth considering, though 
I do not regard it as conclusive. — S. W. 

There was a good deal of tumult when this letter was read ; 
but it was supposed that it would be conclusive, and the 
conservatives be ready for a vote. When the ballots were 
produced, however, it was found that old Wheelgrease, Sara 
Puritan, Parsons, Thad. Slocum, Dr. Butterfried, and Dr. 
Mood)', were all candidates for the place, I transcribe from 
the records the following: " Whole number of votes, 231 ; 
necessary for a choice, 116. Jerusha Jenkins, Gl ; B. Brown 
Butterfried, 39 ; Samuel Puritan, 36 ; Eliakim Parsons, 33 ; 



558 " WARRINGTON: " 

Thaddeus Slocum, 29 ; Elkanah Mood}', 24 ; scattering, 2 ; 
blank (counted for Dr. Butterfried) , 1." There seems to be 
a discrepancy here between the " whole number," as stated, 
and the aggregate vote ; but I suppose such errors frequently 
happen in town-records. On the second ballot, Mrs. Jen- 
kins had 121 ; and the opposition concentrated on Judge 
"Whcelgrcasc, giving him nearly all the rest. On looking 
at the record for the next 3'ear, I find that she w-as re- 
elected by nearly a unanimous vote ; and somebody' has 
written in red ink on the margin, " Quer}' : What's become 
of Old Wheelgrease's opinion? " ^ 



1 Attorney Wheelgrease's first appearance was in 1857. Mr. Justice 
Hitchcock was a police justice, busily engaged in the trial of liquor- 
cases, which the "friends of the cause " were "putting througli" with 
great vigor. Suddenly, however, the trials were brought to a standstill 
in this way, as the justice relates: — 

" The ' friends of temperance,' last week, pounced upon thirteen Irishmen 
suspected of being engaged in selling liquor; and on Friday they were duly hauled 
up before me. I noticed a rather broad grin upon Lawyer Toddystick'.s face as the 
witnesses were testifying. The case was perfectly plain ; and I was about to pass 
sentence, when Toddystick rose, and inquired under what law I proposed to pun- 
ish the men. ' Under the Liquor Law of U'52,* said I, ' of course. You are familiar 
enough with the course of justice in this court, and ought not to ask such foolish 
questions.' (I spoke with some severity.) ' May it please your Honor,' said Toddy- 
stick, in a tone, which, I confess, softened mo somewhat, ' that law is repealed.' — 
' You are nustaken,' said Mr. Wheelgrease, the attorney for the Commonwealth, 
with an air of triumph: 'the new liquor law has not yet passed; and, if it bad, I 
rather think we could convict these men under it.* — ' I am aware, sir,' said Toddy- 
stick, ' Uiat the new law has not passed : but, notwith-standing that fact, the law of 
1^02 is repealed ; and if your Honor will have the goodness to examine the oUlcial 
copy of the Act, entitled " An Act to make Pews Personal Property," you will 
find it so. I will read it,' continued he, ' as I find it in the Daily Bee (of April 11), 
which is the otllcial paper of the State.'— ' 1 have a copy,' said I, ' furnished to me 
by the Secretary of State; but you are certainly mistaken in yoiu- assertion.' — ' If 
your Honor will idlow me,' said lie, ' I will read the Act.' Wliereupon Toddystick 
read as follows: ' Be it enacted, &c. (Sect. 1) Pews in all houses of public wor- 
ship shall bo personal property. (Sect. 2) Nothing in this Act shall alTect any 
e.xisting right of dower in any pew. (Sect. 3) All Acts consistent lierewith are 
hereby rei)ealed.' — ' Now,' said Toddystick with most provoking coolness, ' if your 
Honor will examine the Liquor Law of 1S52 wiUi care, you will lind that it is entirely 
consistent with the making of pews personal property. There is not a section of 
It, or a syllable, which, by the remotest Implication, can be deemed inconsistent 
■with thi.s new Act: therefore the law of 1852 is repealed, and my clients nmst be 
discharged.' Y'ou will readily see what a predicament I w.ts in. AAHieelgrease 
began to talk about typographical errors, and attempted to browbeat me, as well 
as Toddystick ; but 1 promptly told him, ' This coiut, Miater Wheelgrease, can 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 559 

[1872.] 

HARVARD COLLEGE AGAINST WOMAN AND THE CO-EDUCATION 
OF THE SEXES. 

The Harvard-college report is a fair specimen of the stuff 
able and (in most things) sensible men will write when 
hard pressed. It is about on a par with the decision of the 
Supreme Court. " It would require much time and labor to 
arrive at an unprejudiced understanding of the practical 
operation of the co-education of the sexes in the colleges 
where it now exists." Suppose it would ? What are the over- 
seers of a college for, but to take time, and undergo labor, 
for the solution of all educational questions? If Judge 
Hoar and Mr. Parker are too busj', and Dr. Walker too old, 
to do the work, let them find men who will attend to it. 
Would these three men venture to put in such an excuse for 
neglecting to treat any other question of importance con- 
nected with the management of the college ? Of course not. 
Moreover, these men say they think, "if the information 
asked for was obtained, it would not throw much light on the 
expediency of adopting the principle at Harvard, where the 
traditions and circumstances are so different." . Traditions 
— "a}', there's the rub." This whole question of woman's 
opportunit}' is one of tradition. But Harvard College even 
has overcome traditions. What was Mr. Eliot put into the 
presidenc}' for but to scatter traditions ? The object of the 
gentlemen ought to be to get rid of absurd traditions. In 
1875 the traditions will be three years older than they are 
now, and in 1880 still older. They have got to go sooner 
or later. If these tradrtionists are mean enough to deny a 
Harvard-college education to their own daughters, or the 
daughters of their contemporaries, the grand-daughters will 
have it, and bless the memories of somebody. Then they 

take no cognizance of typograpliical eirors. All it has to do is to execute the laws, 
not to enact them.' — ' Precisely so, your Honor,' said Toddystick ; ' though, if your 
Honor w;is more frequently constilted by the law-making power, we should unques- 
tionably have more consistent statutes.' At this, Wheelgrease made some impu- 
dent remark; and I committed him for contempt, and discharged the prisoners." 



560 "WARRINGTON: " 

try to strengthen themselves by the old fugyism of " nearly 
all the old and large colleges," and close by saying that 
what has brought them to a conclusion is the conviction that 
"the great body of the friends of Harvard College are dis- 
inclined not only to the proposed change, but also to the 
agitation of the question, at least at present." The first 
part of the remark seems pertinent ; but what has the last 
to do with the question? Congress used to be disiuclined to 
meddle with slavery. It was also disinclined to the agita- 
tion of the slavery-question. It refused to meddle with it ; 
but luckil}- the " agitation" was a matter over which it had 
no control. No more have the overseers of Harvard College 
any control over the " agitation" of the question of admit- 
ting women to the universit}-. If the legislature had not 
foolishly let slip its hold upon the overscership of the college, 
the tradition would have been in a fair way of yielding before 
this time. 

I am reminded here of the attempt lately made by Dr. E. II. 
Clark, Pres. Eliot, and Dr. Holmes, to excuse the hunkerism 
of Harvard College, by falling back, as their last intrench- 
ment, upon ph3-siolog3', and the periodicit}' of the female 
oi'ganizatioh. These people argue as if the proposition to 
educate boys and girls together were a new one. In the 
town of Concord, — and I don't suppose that town was, forty 
years ago, different from other towns in this respect, — bo3-s 
and girls studied Latin, and parsed Pope's " Essay on Man," 
together ; and if Dr. Bartlett, or Dr. Ilurd, or Dr. Ripley, 
had attempted to separate the sexes on an}- such pretence as 
these Harvard -college Bourbons now promulgate, they would 
have been laughed out of town. The whole theory is evi- 
dently a "fetch," designed for the purpose of sustaining 
the determination to which Dr. Walker and Judge Hoar 
have arrived in their recent report. No : in a great many 
respects, public opinion has not advanced one iota on this 
question, — apparently advanced, I ought to say. I do not 
doubt that it has really advanced, and that the bairiers will 
b}' and by gi^•e way all at once. 



PEN-PORTRAITS. 561 

[June 9, 1875.] 
woman's independence in 1776 AND IN 1876. 

The suflfrage-meeting at Trcmont Temple started up a 
new subject of debate, in the protest against keeping the 
Philadelphia or any other centennial celebration of the 
events of Jul}-, 1776. And supposing it to be admitted 
that the question of individual suffrage of 1876, and that of 
national independence of 1776, are very different ones ; that 
it is not true, in every individual case, that a man or a 
woman who pays a tax, and is not allowed a vote, is neces- 
sarily and thereby a victim of tyranu}^ : still there seems 
enough in the two cases to justify pretty forcible language. 
A hundred 5-ears ought to have brought with them to the 
American mind a stronger sense of the gross injustice of 
den^'ing the individual suffrage to woman, whether a tax- 
payer on her property or not. What would Sam Adams 
have said if Gen. Gage or Thomas Hutchinson had accosted 
him with the remark, "Hold your tongue, Adams! 3'ou are 
the head demagogue of Boston town-meetin' ; you control 
the colony, get up committees of correspondence, throw over- 
board from our ships such imports as 3'ou don't like, and 
such as j-ou persuade the populace not to like ; 3'ou have 
bedevilled Jo Warren to neglect his business, and take to 
drink, and even got John Hancock to shell out his money in 
aid of what you have agreed to call 3-our ' cause : ' and as 
^or voting, you are all the time voting ; so that we get one 
of your infernal petitions or resolutions from Faneuil Hall or 
the Old South every day of the week : haven't j'ou all the 
rights you want? " Wouldn't this have been plausible? But 
Adams was not deceived or turned aside. Representation 
elsewhere than in the Old State House was what he wanted. 
If the able and intelligent and (as far as nearly all the mat- 
ters of law and government are concerned) just American 
statesmen — like Judge Hoar or Gen. Hawley, for exam- 
ple — could be made to see this question as thousands of 
women see it, no matter whether tlie}' are tax-paj-ers or not, 



5G2 ''WARRINGTON :" 

they would settle it very speedily. The fact is, they are the 
sentimentalists ; and the}- insist that their sent! mental isiu 
shall control not onl}- all other folks' sentimentalism, but the 
question of right also. 

There was never any pretence among the men who framed 
the constitutions of 1780 and thereabout that the exclusion 
of women from the right of suffrage was to be perpetual and 
immovable. The great TheophilCis Parsons, in " The Essex 
Kesult," written within a 3-ear or two of 1780, made no pre- 
tence of natural inability or incapabilit}-, but onl}- that, at 
that time, worpen's occupations were such that they were not 
in public life, or in positions of public activit}', so as to make 
the question one of practical consequence. Now woman 
has been forced (quite as much as she has sought to force 
herself) into active positions. Look at the census tables, and 
3'ou will find that she is in hundreds of trades, and is even 
knocking at the doors and looking in at the windows of the 
lawyers' offices ; preaching even, in spite of Paul, and with- 
out half as much expense (for pulpit spittoons) as there 
used to be ; editing, nay, lobbying, — appearing before legis- 
lative committees to suggest how to get women into the 
State Prison, and at the same time protesting that she is 
not in favor of letting them out of their political bonds. So 
Judge Parsons's reasons are gone, as in 1820 the reasons for 
property qualification for men went, and in 1833 religious 
liberty was established by the abolition of the Third Article 
of the Bill of Rights. 

They say the cause makes no progress. Nonsense ! it 
cannot help progress ; for it is a movement of civilization 
itself. And it is no wonder that women say, " My dear sir, 
3'Ou have exercised j-our pig-headeduess long enough : we 
have answered jour reasons times enough; and now we 
insist on immediate justice. You shall not, Avith any aid or 
sympathy from us, go on with your eloquential talk, con- 
demning us to the poor privilege of listening to you and 
feeding you, without at least a protest. No fear but you 
will (Ind enough women to aid you. They are easily 
coaxed." 



PEN-POUTBAITS. 563 

" Good my love, stay thou at home, 
And read ' The Heh- of Clnidleighbumpkins,' — 
TroUope's last novel: I will send it thee. 
' The club,' sayst thou? — the club at Tremont Place? 
I like it not: 'tis growing radical. But, if you go. 
Persuade them there are better things than balloting." 

The number of women who believe themselves capable of 
taking a more prominent part in the affairs of life — not 
onl}^ governmental, but business, literary, religious, social — 
is constantl}' increasing, and without much regard to the 
suffrage-movement itself. Those who think this last move- 
ment stationary, or losing ground, fail, I think, to see this 
fact. There are " oceans " of women who have had no time 
to think of the question of voting, and no ability to argue 
it, and perhaps no disposition to vote, who are yet making 
up their minds that their past condition of " subjection " (as 
Mr. Mill vv'ith perfect truth calls it) is imjust as well as irk- 
some, and who desire and are determined to be rid of it. 
These women form the grand ami}- who really re-enfoice the 
doctrinaires^ perhaps without knowing it. When the breach 
is made, these will rush in fast enough. More and more of 
them are appreciating the situation every day. 



APPEI^DIX. 



APPENDIX A. 

WILL OF CAPT. JAMES PECKER OF BOSTON, WHARFINGER, BORN 
IN HAVERHILL (pROCABLY) IN 1686; DIED APRIL 2S, 1734. 

In the name of God, Amen. 

I, James Pecker of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and province 
of Massachusetts Bay in New England, wharfinger, being at present 
weak in body, yet of sound mind and memory (thanks be to God 
therefor), considering the frailty and mortality of my body, and 
that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain 
this my last will and testament. . . . Touching any worldly estate 
wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this world, I give 
and dispose thereof in manner and form following ; viz. , after pay- 
ment of my just debts and funeral charges, and the reservation 
of a certain piece or parcell of land hereafter to be mentioned, I 
give and bequeath unto my dearly beloved wife, Bridget Pecker, 
one equal half of all my real estate during her natural life, and at 
her decease to be disposed of as hereafter to be mentioned. Like- 
wise I give unto my said wife, her heirs and assigns, my chaise, 
and one horse. Also I give unto my said wife, her heirs and 
assigns, one-half of my pew in the meeting-house, she or they 
paying one-half of the dues arising therefrom unto the minister. 
Furthermore, I give unto my said wife one equal third part of all 
my movable and personal estate not yet disposed of (with reserva- 
tions of some things hereafter to be mentioned), unto her, her 
heirs and assigns forever. I give imto my daughter, Susannah 
Clark, with reservations as aforesaid, the improvement of one 
equal fourth part of my real estate during her natural life. . . . 
Whereas I have purchased of my honored father, James Pecker of 

565 



566 APPEXDIX. 

Haverhill, a certain part or i^arccll of land lying and being in 
Haverhill aforesaid, as by the deed fully executed to me may more 
fully appear, I give and bequeath unto my daughter, Mary Pecker, 
the said piece or parcell of land at and immediately after the 
decease of my father, James Pecker (according to the tenure of 
said deed), \Yitl^all the rights, privileges, and appurtenances there- 
unto belonging unto her, her heirs and assigns forever. Further- 
more, I give unto my said daughter, Maiy Pecker, ^ the remaining 
equal fourth part of all my real estate, of what nature, kind, or 
denomination, forever unto her, h(?r heirs and assigns forever. 
I give unto my son-in-law, Ebenezer Papillion, his heirs and as- 
signs, my regimental clothes, — viz., my scarlet coat and breeches, 
and my laced hatt; and, if at home at the time of my decease, 
I give unto the said Ebenezer Papillion a mourning suit of 
apparel. . . . 

I do hereby constitute, appoint, and ordain my dearly beloved 
wife, Bridget Pecker, together with my two brothers, Jolin Pecker 
of Haverhill, and Daniel Pecker of Boston, joint executors of this 
my last will and testament ; and I do likewise hereby revoke, 
annul, and utterly disallow of, all other wills and testaments. In 
witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty- 
second day of April, in the year of our Lord seventeen hundred and 
thirty-four, anno regni Georgius Secundus, magna Britannia regis 
septimo. JAMES PECKER AJio skal. 

IN'VENTOIIY OF THE ESTATE OF CAPT. JAMES PECKER. 

BosTOx, May 10, 1734. 
In the small fore room ; viz. : — £ s d 

1 Black walnut Scrutore 5 

1 Black walnut Table 3 

1 :\Iaple ditto 15 

1 Looking glass ........ 

1 Doz. Leather chairs, at 14/ 8 8 

1 2 armed chair & cushing 10 

1 Standing candlestick, brass, snuffers & dish . . 2 5 

1 pr. Iron dogs, tongs & shovel . . . . . 17 

3 Small pictures & hand brush C 

Burkct on the New Testament ..... 3 

Calvin's Sermons 10 

1 W. S. ]Robiiisou'9 gieat-graudraother, wlio married Emerson Cogs- 
well Ist. 



APPENDIX. 



567 



1 Large Bible . 
1 Small ditto 
1 Barnards Sermons 
1 Mathers life . 
1 Bundle of books 
1 Ditto 
1 Do. 

1 China Bowl . 
1 Burnt Ditto . 
% Doz. blue & white china cups & saucers 
1 Tea pott, 5 saucers, 4 cups of burnt do. 
1 Slop dish and 1 saucer . 

3 painted glass tea cups and saucers, 1 saucer 
1 Eartliern dish .4, 2 ditto .5 . 

4 scalloped plates, 2/6 
28 plates, 1/6 . 

5 small ditto .... 

1 large bowl, & three small ditto 

2 Milk pots and Sugar cup, & 3 tea cupps 
1 Pr. Glass decanters 
1 " Ditto 
Allabaster toys . 

3 Wine glasses . 
1 Pr. large beakers . 

13 Ditto . 
1 Glass cannister, 1 pr. Salts, & 1 Cruet 
1 two gallon jugg 

1 Bleu & white ditto . 

4 flowered stone juggs 
4 stone muggs, 1 pickle pott 

2 New England pitchers, 1 cupp 
1 large ironing box & heater 
1 Small ditto & ditto . 



In the great Entry; vi. 



7 Small pictures 
1 Glass lanthorne 



In the greate fore room; vi 



1 looking glass 
1 Maple table 



£. a. 


a. 


2 




10 




10 




6 




8 




8 




8 




1 5 




1 5 




1 2 




1 5 




5 




7 




9 




10 




2 2 




5 




14 




13 


6 


1 




6 




5 




8 




5 




13 




5 




7 


6 


4 




4 16 




5 




2 


6 


1 5 




1 




5 




1 10 




8 




2 





568 



APPENDIX. 



1 Conch & padd 

1 tea table & tankard sewer .... 

2 pictures 

Earthenware on hearth 

Bow and Arrows ...... 

Mantle tree ware, & 8 images & a flower pott 

1 Silver hilted sword 

1 brass hilted ditto, and 1 iron without sheath . 

1 set brushes . . . . 

1 case with 11 bottles 

1 Pr. brass shoe buckles and kne ditto 

2 gold rings, 1 pr. buttons, wt. 6 pt. & 22 grains 
87 oz. 12 pt. silver, at 25 

1 pr. silver shoe buckles 

In the small fore chamber , viz. : — 

1 old fashioned chest with drawers 
1 small ovel table 
1 dressing glass 

6 chairs 

4 pictures ..... 

1 suit diaper curtains with head cloth and teaster 

Counter pins .... 

1 pr. Blankets .... 

^)4 yds. tickling burge, a 4/ 

1 Quilt 

1 pr. sheets & pillow cases 
1 Bed, 2 pillows, 1 bolster 
Bedstead, curtain rod, straw bed 
1 suit green cloth, lined with silk 
1 Grate coat .... 
1 Close body'd coat . 
1 Fustian jacket & breeches, & worked Holland 
jacket .... 

1 pr. leather breeches 

2 flannel jackets 
1 pr. black silk stockings . 
4 pr. worsted stockings, a 15/ . 

1 pr. white ditto, fine 

2 pr. coarse ditto 



£ 


8. d. 


7 




12 




2 







15 




5 


1 




12 




10 




1 




1 


15 




8 


5 


3 9 


109 


10 




15 


3 




1 


5 


1 


18 


4 


4 


4 




7 


16 


2 




2 


10 




14 


3 




2 


10 


11 


14 


2 


6 


20 




3 


5 


1 


5 


2 




1 


15 




10 


1 


10 


3 




1 






15 



APPENDIX. 



569 



5 pr. yarn ditto 

2 pr. shoes ....... 

1 Silk sash 

1 Hatt 30/, 1 Wigg 40/, 1 pr. leather gloves 15/ 

1 pr. spatterdashes, & riding belt 

2 worked caps, Holland ..... 
9 plain ditto ....... 

1 double worsted ditto 

3 silk handkerchiefs, a 5/ 

2 almost new Holland shirts, a 60/ . 



3 ditto not so good, 

3 ditto, 

4 ditto, 

8 necks & 2 neckcloths 
1 green velvet cap 
1 pr. white cotton gloves 
1 Trunk . 



a 40/ 
30/ 
15/ 



In the grate chamber; viz. 

1 Damask table cloth, 12 napkins 
1 Home spun ditto . 

6 Cotton and linen napkins 

7 table cloths, a 10/ . 
3 Holland sheets 
3 pr. ditto, 66/. 

16 pr. cotton linen sheets . 
3 pr. coarse linen ditto, a 22/ 
3 ditto, a 11/ . 

1 pr. Holland pillow cases 

7 pr. linen Ditto, a 10/ . 
3 small ditto, 3/ 

8 pr. cotton and linen ditto, 5/ 

2 coarse bolster cases, a 3/ 
1 Twylight 

1 pr. pillow cases on ye bed 
1 pr. cotton linen sheets do. 
1 pr. blankets . 
1 Quilt .... 
1 bed, boylster, & 2 pillows No 
1 bedstead, rod, and straw bed 



£. 


s. 


1 


5 


1 




12 




3 


15 


1 


10 




10 


1 






7 




15 


6 




6 




4 10 


3 




1 






5 




3 




7 


4 10 


2 


10 


1 




3 


10 


8 


5 


6 


12 


30 


8 


3 


6 


1 


13 


1 




3 


10 




9 


2 






6 




10 




5 


1 


18 


2 


10 


3 




9 


19 


2 


6 



570 APPENDIX. 








£. s. 


1 Green Cheney Coach bed, &c. ... 


. 30 


1 Ditto Easy Chair 


. 11 


1 Pallet bedstead 


1 10 


1 Bed, 1 Boylster, 2 pillows No. 3 . , . 


9 13 


1 pr. Sheets ....... 


1 10 


1 pr. Blankets ....... 


2 5 


1 old Quilt 


15 


1 pr. Chest drawers, 1 Grate, & U small Turkey, < 




work chairs, at 20/ and 10/ 


5 18 


1 Looking glass 


7 10 


1 Seil skin trunk 


1 5 


1 old trunk . . . . 


18 


1 pr. calico curtains and vallans . . 


2 10 


1 pr. red Cheney ditto 


4 


1 pr. bellows with brass nose .... 


12 


1 pr. Dogs with brass tops .... 


1 


1 Fire shovel and tongs, 1 L)rush, & Twilight table 


18 


In the Kitchen Chamber; viz. : — 




1 Bed, 1 bolster No. 4 


11 12 


1 pr. Blankets ....... 


2 5 


1 llugg, 1 Bedstead, & Straw bed 


4 


Callico curtains and vallans .... 


o 


1 Head cloth & Teaster 


15 


1 Table 10/, 1 Close stool pan 20/, 1 small glass 


1 10 


In the Gairet ; viz. : — 




1 Old bedstead & curtains .... 


2 


1 Pilloon & case ...... 


1 


1 Drugget coat 


15 


Negroes beds & bedding 


1 10 


In the Kitchen : — 




1 Pr. brass candlesticks 


1 10 


2 pr. Ditto 




1 10 


1 pr. ditto broke .... 




3 


1 Br;iss coffee pot .... 




15 


2 Brass skillets 




10 


1 Bell mettle ditto .... 




2 10 


1 Co]pper tea kettle .... 




1 10 



d. 



APPENDIX. 



571 



1 Warming- pan 

1 Jack 

1 Doz. hard mettle plates . 

1 Doz. ditto .... 
6 Soup Ditto, a 4/7 . 

2 water — .... 

2 large, 1 smal pewter dish, 1 Large, 
Old pewter .... 
1 Brass sauce pan 
1 Brass scimer .... 

Tin Ware 

1 
1 
1 
1 
1 



Doz. patty pans 
pr. Bellows . ... 
pr. Leather fine meeting Buckets & bags 
Y^v. Iron dogs .... 
pr. tongs and fire shovel 
Fender & Slice .... 

2 Spitts 8/, 2 Gridirons 10/ . 

3 tramills ..... 

2 Chafing dishes 6/, }i skewer 2/ 

3 Iron pots, 1 frying pan, 2 Iron kettles & 
35 lbs. Candles, 1/6 . 

3 brass kettles .... 

1 Doz. Ivory hafted knives & forks 

2 Iron candle sticks . 
1 Pr. Boots .... 
1 Small ovel Table . 
1 Pine ditto .... 
5 Old chairs .... 
1 Lignumvite pestle & mortar . 
Wooden Ware . . . 
5 coarse table cloths & ten towels 



In the Cellar 



3 Barrells Soap . 



2 Ceader set work tubbs 

Lumbering Stuff 

5 Empty cider barrels 

5 doz. Cider in bottles & 2 doz. empty ones 



small soup Do. 



pot hooks . 



s. 
10 
10 
15 
15 

7 
10 

5 

8 

4 

1 7 

18 

10 

1 10 

1 

12 

12 

18 

1 2 
8 

3 

2 12 
8 14 
4 

2 

15 

1 10 

10 

7 

1 

5 
1 7 



6 15 
15 
18 
10 

15 
1 10 



572 



APPENDIX. 



In the Warehouse at the house: — 

2 pots of Flog'gs fat, wt. 18 lbs. .... 

1 Barrel pork ........ 

Lumbering stuff, 1 old ladle [the rest is gone, }^ page] 



£. s. 

18 



At Mr. Ilalsey tcharf; viz.: — 

4 Cart Horses 60 

1 Riding horse 17 

2 Carts . 20 

3 old cart wheels, 1 sled 2 

3 pr. Hems and traces for horses . . . . 2 14 

In tcare house, my wharf: — 
1 Ilhd. Molasses, 100 Gal. @ 3/10 . 

4 bbl. Turpentine 

29 pails, 1 Sugar tub, & 2 Caggs 

Old rigging, about 1 weight 

x4 Spun yarn 

1 Empty rum Hhd 

2 empty barrels ..... 

11 Saddle Trees 

15 Chalk 

Negro Tony, apprised .... 

" Will, " .... 

" Bristol, " .... 

" BristolJim, " 
Limekiln, wharf, and Warehouses 
Dwelling house, barns, buildings, and land 

Ai)proximate total £2973 

Captain Pecker's wife was Bridget Papillion. She was a widow 
with one sou, Ebenezer, when she married Mr. Pecker. Ilcr 
husband was an English gentleman. 

On a paper found with the will was written, — 

"was my truly worthy and dearly beloved James Pecker, 

who died April ye 8, 1734, in the 49th year of his age, in the 
division of his things to me, his widdow Bridget Pecker. ' Open 
thou my eyes that I may behold wondrous things of thy law.' 

" Was married to my first husband, John Papillion, June ye 7, 
1710, bereaved of him about 8 years after. lie died in London ; 
left one only son, born April ye 9, 1712, named Ebenezer Papil- 



19 


3 4 


7 




1 


12 


o 




3 


10 




10 




6 


1 


2 


3 




40 




80 




90 




100 




400 




1500 





APPENDIX. 



573 



lion, who grew up a man, followed the sea, was lost at sea, I don't 
know how, but 24 years of age. Very pleasant were these to me 
while living : the loss of them will make me go mourning to my 
grave." 



APPENDIX B. 

RECAPITULATION OF " WARRINGTON'S " WRITINGS. 



As Editor. 

Yeoman's Gazette and Concord Republican 
Lowell Journal and Courier 
Manchester (N.H.) American . 
Boston Daily Whig and Republican 
Lowell American 
The Boston Daily Commonwealth 
The Telegraph .... 
Straight Republican (campaign paper) 
Tocsin " " 

Reveille " *' 

Hartford Courant .... 
Concord Monitor .... 



As Correspondent and Contributor. 
New-York Evening Post ("Middlesex") . 

Worcester Spy, in 

Springfield Republican ("Warrington") . 
Daily Evening Traveller .... 

Fitchburg ReveiUe 

New-York Tribune (" Gilbert" and " Warrington") 

Worcester Transcript (" Boythorn ") 

Daily Atlas and Bee . 

Zion's Herald . 

Congregationalist 

Hartford Press (" Kremlin ") 

California Paper 

Commonwealth (Mr. Slack's), supplied material for 

Atlantic Monthly, December, 1871, Gen. Butler's 

Campaign in Massachusetts 
Boston Journal : Wendell Phillips; a Review 
Gen. B. F. Butler reviewed 



1839-1842 

1842-1849 

1845-1846 

1848-1849 

1849-1854 

1854 

1854-1857 

1857 

1861, 1862 

1870 

1868 

1868 



1853 
1856, 1863 
1856-1876 

1857 
1857-1858 
1857-1869 
1857-1860 
1860-1861 



1865 

1864 

1862-1876 



1870' 
1871-1872 



574 



APPENDIX. 



Boston Journal : Gen. B. F. Butler reviewed again . 1873 

Articles 1873 

Butler 1874 

Boston News ("Warrington"), Letters and Articles 1875-1876 

Woman's Journal 

Pamphlets. 

Conspiracy to defame John A. Andrew . • . 1801 

Legislative 18G1 

Concord and Sudbury Meadows .... 18G1 

Ex-Governor Boutwell and Judge Thomas . . 1802 

Sustain the Government; Stand by the President . 1862 

Miscellaneous 1800-1870 

Salary Grab 187-4 

Adflresftes, Memorials, Sfc. 

Personal-liberty Bill, Memorial and Report . . 1801 

Republican State Addresses 1801-1807 

Republican State Resolutions 1801-1867 

Free-ballot Memorials 

Woman-suffrage ]\Iemorials and Reports 

Ayer's Almanac (reading-matter) 

Appleton's Cyclopaedia 

Manual of Parliamentary Law 1875 



OFFICIAL niSTORY. 

Member of Massachusetts House of Representatives 
Secretary of Constitutional Convention 
Clerk of Committee on Revision of Statutes 
Clerk of ^lassachusetts House of Representatives 
Secretary of Republican State Committee . 
Justice of the Peace and of the Quorum . 



1852-1853 

1853 

1859 

1862-1873 

1803-1807 

1865 



APPENDIX C. 

[July 7, 1842.] 
COURT OF COMMOX rLE.\S. — BUTLER. 

Elrridge G. Record of Lowell was charged with passing coun- 
terfeit money. The examination of this man and his brother before 
the Police Court was reported in " The Courier " a few days ago; 



APPENDIX. 575 

and I need not state the circumstances of the case. But a rather 
amusing and interesting scene (to use no other epithets) took place 
at the trial of Elbridge, which T feel it to be my duty to chronicle. 
The indictment charged the prisoner with defrauding Sarah Wil- 
kins. Mrs. Wilkins testified that her name was Sarah Emma Wil- 
kins, and that she had a husband living. She could, therefore, not 
be defrauded. Mr. Butler of Lowell, the prisoner's counsel, called 
the attention of the court to these flaws in the indictment, and 
asked for an acquittal. Some conversation ensued between the 
judge, district-attorney, and Mr. Butler; but the objections of Mr. 
Huntington were overruled, and the jury were directed to bring in 
a verdict of acquittal. They did so; and Mr. Butler immediately 
moved that the prisoner be discharged. Mr. Huntington objected, 
but evidently had no ground for doing so. Mr. Butler made some 
remark about the objection being made for the purpose of getting 
out another warrant. The judge said he believed he must order 
the prisoner to be discharged. The words were hardly out of his 
mouth, and the clerk had not repeated the order for his discharge, 
when Mr. Butler opened the door of the prisoner's box, and hurried 
Record, out of the house, saying, "Go along, and go as quick as 
you can." The prisoner sloped immediately. 

]\Ir. Shed was observed to follow Record out of the court-house, 
and it was shrewdly expected that the rogue would not go far off. 
Mr. Butler, whose duties as coiinsel did not cease with the acquittal 
of his client, rushed out of the house in a comfortable state of 
excitement for the purpose of inquiring what was going on. 
With the laudable desire of " jotting down " whatever of interest 
might occur, I walked down staii's. I saw nothing of Record; and 
the only part of -Mr. Butler which I noticed was his hat, which he 
had lost in his " neck-or- nought " race, and which was lying on 
the steps of the court-house. I looked toward the hotel, and 
observed the learned counsel declaiming vigorously to the crowd 
which had gathered around him, so absorbed in the interests of 
his client, that he probably forgot his hatless condition. I after- 
wards learned that Mr. Shed had arrested Record without author- 
ity, and Mr. Butler obtained his release. 

Record went his way; but it was a very little way, after all. A 
warrant had been procured for his arrest, and he was recaptured 
by Charley Adams and Deputy-Sheriff Lewis near Walden Pond, 
about a mile from the village. Tlie district-attorney will probably 
take care tliat no flaws shall be made in the next indictment 
against the young man. I appreciate greatness wherever I see it 



.57G APPENDIX. 

manifested; and Mr. Butler in this trial certainly showed himself 
to be a great man. Perhaps his greatness is not of the highest 
order; neither was Bonaparte's : but who will dispute the chiim of 
the latter to be called great? The opening of the prison-doors by 
Mr. Butler without permission might perhaps be called a some- 
what outrageous proceeding; but it would be called so only by 
those who would blame Cromwell for dissolving the Rump Parlia- 
ment, or Governor Dorr for organizing the Foundry Legislature. 

W. S. R. 



APPENDIX D. 

[1849.] 
"A WEEK OX THE CON'COKD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS." 

We have copied above the title of a book: for one reason, be- 
cause it will make as good a cajition as any thing else to what we 
have to say iu this place; and another, because we may say some- 
thing upon a book which has been kindly lent us by a friend. We 
mention the fact that the volume was loaned to us, because it is a 
rare occurrence for us to borrow a book, and may be set down as 
an epoch in our life — almost. When we saw the title with " Con- 
cord River " upon it, our thoughts were carried back to the days 
of our boyhood, when we used to go thither with our fishing- 
tackle to catch whatever chose to nibble at our bait. We don't 
know as we were enough of a fisherman to have the epithet be- 
stowed u])on us which was somewhere given to the appendage of a 
fishiug-pole; viz., " a string at one end, and a fool at the other: " 
but we have caught some fish in our day; had some fflorious 
nibbles; but never have we, like Simon in the New Testament, 
"toiled all night, and taken nothing." In speaking of the fishing 
which was formerly carried on in Concord River, we notice that 
Mr. Thoreau has hinted at a circumstance of a militia-captain — we 
believe his name was Miles — who neglected to appear to meet his 
company, having gone a-fishing at the time they were "warned 
to appear," and that thenceforth the said company always went by 
the name of " The Shad ; " and so the name stuck like scales to all 
the militia in the region. We are glad to see honorable mention 
made of that corps. What Concord boy has not followed "The 
Shad '' round town to listen to the drum and fife and other pieces 
of nnisic, not heeding where he trod, till some careless barefooted 
fellow Would hit his toe against a stone, and then, catching the 



APPENDIX. b~n 

mangled toe in his hand, would hop along till the toe aforesaid 
came to its senses ? Glad are we that the memory of " The Shad " 
is perpetuated in so pleasant a book. 

It may be said of this book as the author says of great poems, 
" It is characteristic of great poems, that they will yield of their 
sense in due proportion to the hasty and the deliberate reader. 
To the practical they will be common sense; and to the wise, 
wisdom: as either the traveller may wet his lips, or an army may 
fill its water-casks, at a full stream." 

GOOD-NATURE. 
"By hook or by crook." 
Dame Grundy was the most good-natured woman alive. Come 
what would, everything was right, — nothing wrong. One day 
Farmer Grundy (husband to the dame) told a neighbor that his 
wife was the most even-tempered woman in the world; for he never 
saw her cross in his life, and that, for once, he should like to see 
her so. " Well," said his neighbor, " go into the woods, and bring 
home a load of the crookedest wood you can find; and, if that does 
not make her cross, nothing will." Accordingly, to try the expeii- 
ment, he teamed home a load of wood every day calculated to 
make a woman fret. For a week or more, she used the wood copi- 
ously; but not a word of complaint escaped her lips. So, one day, 
the husband ventured to inquire of her how she liked the wood. 
" Oh, 'tis beautiful wood! " she said. " I wish you'd get another 
load; for it fays round the pot complete." 

BAKED BP:ANS. 

The town of Beverly has had the reputation of cooking a good 
many beans; so much so, that its inhabitants have been called 
" beaners." Charlestown, also, has had similar honors. AV^e 
recollect, some twenty years since, when we ventured within the 
precincts of Boston from Charlestown, we were frequently beset by 
Boston boys w'ith the appellation of "pig." We have an anec- 
dote pat to the purpose; and here it is : — 

Page, the driver of the Beverly stage, was one day taking in a 
fleshy lady-passenger in Charlestown Square, when a truckman 
came along and said, " Get out of the way with your old bean- 
pot!" Page, who had hold of the lady's arm, turned round and 
made answer, " Wait a minute till I get mv pork in." 

E. G. R. 



578 APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX E. 

A VILLAGE POUTICIAX. 

FroTu "The Carpet-Bag." 

Deacox Jonas Jenkins is in the corner s^rocery-store, surround- 
ed by loafers. Eldad Grimes, Elnathan Dodge, and others, are 
there, sitting on " quintals of codfish," and chewing the quid. The 
deacon is reading from the newspaper what Prof. M. said in his 
speech on accepting the nomination for Congress. Said the dea- 
con, " He was brouglit in, accepted the noniiuution, thanked the 
delegates, and then went on to enlarge upon political topics." — 
" Well," said Elnathan Dodge, " let's hear what he had to say. 
How is he on the tariff ?" — "You'll see," said the deacon, 
rather crusty at being interrupted. " Can't you wait a minute? " 
He went on to read, " Rejoiced to meet his friends; glorious 
A\'hig cause; cause of the country; star that never sets; factious 
opposition; all they want is office." — "That's a fact," said 
Dodge. " What d'ye spose they care about the niggers? " — "De- 
pression of agricultural interest; tariff on wool; quacks; pre- 
tenders driven from power." — "That's just what he said," said 
Deacon Jenkins; "for I heerd him." — "Well, you, he's smart, 
ain't he?" said the Scrabbleville baker, who had driven up, and 
was now making one of the crowd. The deacon proceeded: 
" Union of the States; palsied be the arm; traitors; (ien. Jack- 
son; hemp; stars and stripes, &c. Oh, how he gave it to 'era 
thenl" said the deacon. In this way he closed the speech, 
and approached the conclusion of the article, which ran somehow 
thus: " We are rejoiced to learn that Prof. M. has yielded to 
the earnest solicitation of his friends, and will forthwitii take the 
field in support of the good AV'iiig cause. He will address his 
fellow'-citizens in the principal towns in the district previous to 
the election. We call upon the committees to make active prepa- 
rations for large meetings. Let the people far and near hear our 
eloquent chanq)ion, and we have no fear of the result; for 

" One blast tipon his bugle-horn 
Is worth a thousand men." 

" How's that, deacon? " broke out several of his auditors at the 

close. "What does that mean? " — " Oh ! that's right, that's 

right," said the deacon: " it's just so. I understand he's the best 

bugle-player in the State of Vermont! " 

Bailey Junior. 



APPENDIX. 579 



APPENDIX F. 

AUTOGRAPH-LETTER FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN, IN POSSESSION 
OF W. S. R. 

SPKDfGFiELD ILL., April 6, 1859. 

Messrs. Henry L. Pierce and Others. Gentlemen, — Your 
kind note inviting me to attend a festival in Boston on the loth 
iust., in honor of the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, was duly 
received. My engagements are such, that I cannot attend. Bear- 
ing in mind, that, about seventy years ago, two great political 
parties were first formed in this country, that Thomas Jefferson 
was the head of one of them, and Boston the headquarters of the 
other, it is both curious and interesting that those supposed to 
descend politically from the party opposed to Jeffei'son should now 
be celebrating his birthday in their own original seat of empire, 
while those claiming political descent from him have nearly ceased 
to breathe his name everywhere. 

Remembering, too, that the Jefferson party were formed upon 
their supposed superior devotion to the personal rights of men, 
holding the rights of property to be secondary only, and greatly 
inferior, and then assuming that the so-called Democracy of to-day 
are the Jeffei'son, and thek opponents the anti-Jefferson parties, 
it will be equally interesting to note how completely the two have 
changed hands as to the principle upon which they were originally 
supposed to be divided. The Democracy of to-day holds the liberty 
of our men to be absolutely nothing when in conflict with another 
man's right of property. Republicans, on the contrary, are for 
both the man and the dollar; but, in cases of conflict, the man 
before the dollar. 

I remember once being much amused at seeing two partially 
intoxicated men engage in a fight with their great-coats on; which 
fight, after a long and rather harmless contest, ended in each 
having fought himself out of his own coat, and into that of the 
other. If the two leading parties of this day are really identical 
with the two in the days of Jefferson and Adams, they have per- 
formed about the same feat as the two drunken men. 

But, soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of 
Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. One would start 
with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that 
the simple propositions of Euclid are true; but, nevertheless, he 
would fail utterly with one who should deny the definitions and 



580 APPENDIX. 

axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms 
of free society; and yet they are denied and evaded witli no small 
show of success. One dashingly calls them "glittering generali- 
ties;" another bluntly calls them "self-evident lies;" and still 
others insidiously argue that they apply only to " superior races." 

These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and 
effect, — the supplanting tlie principles of free government, and 
restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They \YOuld 
delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the peo- 
ple. They are the vanguard, the miners and sappers, of returning 
despotism. "We must repulse them, or they will subjugate us. 

This is a world of compensations, and he who would he no slave 
must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others 
deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long 
retain it. All honor to Jefferson; to the man, who, in the concrete 
pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, 
had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely 
revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and 
all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming 
days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very 
harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression ! 
Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 



ll^DEX. 



A. 

Abbott, Joslab G., 20, 42, 360 (see Free- 
Soil party). 

Abolitionists, 27 ; meeting of (1853), 199 
(see Garrison, William Lloyd). 

Adams, Charles Francis, 3S, 39, 46, 47, 
183, 184, 204, 205, 232, 543: biography 
of, 415. 

Adams, Henry, 419. 

Adams, John Qviincy, 19, 29, 266; (the 
younger), 136, 309, 334, 343; biogra- 
phy of, 419. 

Adams, Rev. Nehemiah, 211, 297. 

Adams, Shubael P., 46. 

Advertiser, Boston Daily, 133, 200, 229. 

Alcott, A. Bronson, 66. 

Alcott, Abbv B., 116, 403. 

Allen, Charles, 30, 1»7, 194, 517; biog- 
raphy of, 415. 

Alley, John B., 60, 2.35. 

American (xee Know-Nothing) party. 

Amerige, Henry, 129. 

Andrew, John A., election of, 93, 521; 
position on the Virginia Peace Com- 
mission, 94 ; conspiracy to defame, 
95; re-election of, 110; speaks on 
the removal of Judge Loring, 230; 
accusation against him of being a 
"conditional patriot,'' 274; number 
of votes cast for, in different years, 
339, 340; biography of, 406. 

Antietam, battle of, '2)<0, 283. 

Antislavery (political) movement, begin- 
ning of, 28, 35, 46, 47; progress of, 
183, 227-236. 483 (see Free-Soil party). 

Antislavery society in Concord, 73. 

Applcton, Nathan, 29, 529. 

Arm-in-arm Convention (Philadelphia, 
1S06), 308. 

Aspiuvvall, William, 250, 310. 

Atlas and Bee, The, early antislavery 
newspaper, 84, 92, 98. 

Ayer. Dr. James C, 86; biogi-aphy of, 
422. 

B. 

Baldwin, John D. (editor of Worcester 

Spy), 60, 83. 
Baltimore Convention (1840), 19. 



Banks, Nathaniel P., 20, 58, 194, 216, 220, 
222, 225, 254, 360; biography of, 435. 

Bartlett, Dr. Josiah, 4, 560. 

Bartol, Rev. C. A., remarks of, at " War- 
rington's " funeral, 167. 

Bayard, T. F., 395, 396. 

Beaufort, landing at, 271. 

Beecher. Henry Ward, biography of (in 
1864), 454. 

Bell-Everett party, 243, 245. 

Bemis, G. F., 14. 

Bigelow, Mr. and Mrs. F. E. (see Sha- 
drach, rescue of). 

Biglow Papers, 45. 

Bird Club, 96. 134, 425 (see Bird, F. W.). 

Bu'd, Francis W., reminiscences of 
" W.aiTington." xiv ; 17, 18, 38, 62, 83, 
86, 106, 116, 121, 126, 130, 144, 221, 222, 
299, 304; biography of, 423. 

Blaine, James G., 395. 

Blair, Frank, 1.36, 323. 

Booth, J. WiUves, 307. 

Boston city election of 1871, 349. 

Boston school committee in 1874, 379. 

Boutwell, George S., 20, 194, 198,315, 316, 
360, 381, 384; biography of, 429. 

Bowles, Samuel, 38, 82, 83, 90, 100, 115, 133 
(see " Warrington " letters). 

" Bovthoni " letters, 86 (see Appen- 
dix B). 

Brazealle, Elisha (see Sharkey, Judge). 

Brewster, William N., 46. 

Brooks Cake, recipe for, 74. 

Brooks, Nathan and Mary M., 20, 72, 75. 

Brooks, Preston S.. 65. 

Brown, John, 71, 90. 237-240. 

Buchanan, James, 64, 251, 255, 323, 385, 
417. 

BufCum, James N., 184. 

Bullock, Alexander H., reminiscences of 
"Warrington," xi; 105,409. 

Bull Run, battle of, 96, 267. 

Bumstead, Representative (the typical 
office-seeker), 198; biogi-aphy of, 455. 

Burling.ame, Anson, biographv of, 427. 

Burns, Antony, rendition of, 62, 206, 211. 

Bunitt, ElUui. 20. 

Butler, Benjamin F., position in the 
Harrison campaign, 20 ; ex-major- 
general, 103; elected to the legisla- 
ture of 1852, 54; his raid on the 
governorship of Massachusetts, 130- 
144; letter from, to " Wanuigton," 

681 



582 



INDEX. 



131 ; pn-onnd for hla attack on " War- 
rlngtou," 1U3, 1.13; dofeated in con- 
vention, 134; ilcfi-ats '• Warrinptton " 
88 clerk, 137, 3.VJ-3C5; the " salaiy- 
grab " business, 142; second raid on 
the governorship, 143; linal defeat, 
144 ; weiiltli of London, 371 ; in the 
Johnson inipeaehinent trial, 315; 
position in 1873,450; status in 1874, 
378,381, 383; prediction concerning, 
399; political history of, 439-44(1; re- 
ply of " WaiTington " to, 440 ; as 
"judge and executioner" of the 
Republican partv, 443; life of, 440; 
his character, 302. 43!l, 441,450; his 
epitaph, 4ri3 (.sec Appendix C). 

Butler caniiiai;;n, (irst gun tired iji. 12G; 
review of, 130-144 (see Butler, B. F.). 

Butler and anli-Butlcr men in 1872, 360. 

Butler, who killed? 131, 134, 138, 143, 144, 
310. 

c. 

Carlsbad, Austria, Ijetter from, 376. 

Carpet-bag (.see Stebbings, EInsign ; also 
Shillaber, B. I'.), Appendix E. 

Carter, Robert, GO, 61, 83, 89. 

Clianning, William Ellery, 66. 

Channing. 'William llenrv, 29, 461. 

Chase, S;dmon P., 31 't, .•?22. 

Choate, Uufus, 63, 185, 191, 254, 289; biog- 
raphy of, 457. 

Cincinnati Convention of 1872, 135, 136, 
358. 

Civil-service reform and a Democratic 
restoration, 345. 

Clapp, W. W. (cditorof Boston Journal), 
13.!, 140, 173. 

Clarke, Dr. E. H., 373, 560. 

Clarke, Itev. James Freeman, 346, 365, 
368, 462. 

Clay, llenry. and hw compromises, 187. 

Cleinmer, Mrs. Marj', obituai-y on '• War- 
rington." 178, 

Clifford, John H., 146. 

Cobuni. John P., 72. 

Co-ed u(!ation of the sexes (see Harvard 
College). 

Cogswell family, history of, 3-7. 

Colored regiments, foniiation of, 0.'', 107, 
2!)8; how they look, 292; "Negro 
ready to light for freedom." 265; 
colored recruits, and "conditional 
patriotism." 274. 

Commonwealth, Boston Daily, 60; selec- 
tions from, 206. 

Concord, Mass., 1, 15, 19, 29, 65, 66, 71, 75. 

Congress in 1842, 26. 

" Conquering prejudices," 190. 

Conscience Whigs, 35, 36, 38 (see Whig 
party). 

"Consolation of Asses," 201. 

Constitution explained to beginners, 202. 

Constitution of l,s53, defeat of, 203. 

Conway, M. D., 106. 

Copperhead Democracy, 302 (see Demo- 
cratic party). 

Courant, Hartfonl. 119. 

Crane, Zenas M., 104. 

Ciu-tia, George T., 191, 192. 



Curtis, Harriot (see Tx)well Offering). 
Cashing, Caleb, 194, 205, 250, 264, 407, 
413. 



D. 



Dana, Richard H., jun., 486; biography 
of, 464. 

Davis, Charles G., 221. 

Davis, Jefferson, 96, 110, 288, 289, 306, 312. 

Davis, John, ,06. 

Davis, Mrs. Mary (of Concord), 4, 5. 

Dawes, Heniy L.", 134, 360 ; biography of, 
471. 

Democratic party, 20; standing during 
tlie war, 288; "civil-service refonn in, 
(1871), 343; probable Democratic re- 
action (1874). 3.><4; cliiuices for a 
Democratic victorv in 1876, ;!;i2, 397; 
record of, 393 (.sce'Rautoul, Robert; 
alsiisee reform party). 

Derbv. George II. (.see Phoenix, Jolui). 

Dial, "the, 16. 

Dickens. Charies. 29, 341. 

Digg, K. Goethe, his toast, 531. 

Disraeli, Benjamin, .■570. 

'■ Doughfaces," 97, 256. 

Douglas, Stephen A., 241; biography of, 

4(;(>. 

Douglass, Frederick, 46; biography of, 

468. 
Dowiu>r. Samuel, 60, 489, 501. 
Dred Scott decision, 231, 232. 
Drew, Thonuis, 104, 152, 305. 



E. 

Farle, .Tohn ^r.. 120. 

Eliot, Charles W. {see Harvard College). 

El wood, Michael (see Supreme Judicial 
Court). 

Emancipation, 96^98; Proclamation of, 
lO.s, 109, 111, 280-290. 

Emei-son, R. W., how related t-o " War- 
rington," 3; moves to Concord, 15; 
Divinity-School addie.ss, 16; firet 
book printed, 17; essays lirst appear, 
21 (.s-ee Concord). 

Emigrant Aid Society (New England), 75. 

Evarts, William IM.,".'>2i5. 

Evening Post, New- York, 68; selections 
from, 203. 

Everett, Edward, 13, 245, 248, 257. 



F. 



Fai-lev, Harriet (see Lowell Offering). 

Fay, Judge S. P. P., 4. 

Fillmore, Millard, 35, 45, 189. 

Ft)ley, M:ivg.aret (see Lowell OlTering). 

" Foo<l for j>oliticians," 197. 

Forbes. John INI., 298. 

Fort Wagner, Fifty-Fourth Regiment 
at. 296. 

Free-Soil party, formation of, 30, 37, 18.3, 
187; conventions and movements of , 
35, 38, 39, 42, 4.'>-48, 64, *A; review of, 
35-77; resolution written for in 1818 



INDEX. 



583 



by " Warrington," 38; list of Free- 
Soil Democratic papers, 43 ; becomes 
tlie " Straight -Republican" party, 
64; contends against Fugitive-slave 
Law, 1K9-213, 228; reminiscences of 
its leaders, 400-405 ; its work, 410, 417, 
427. 483. 

Fr6niont, John C, 64, 269, 

Frye, Isaac W., 496, 

Fugitive-slave Law, signing of, 45; char- 
acter and effect of, 189, 196; work- 
ings of. 206-213, 228 (see Loriug, Ed- 
ward G). 

Fuller, Margaret, 16, 67. 

Fulton, Rev. J. D.,341. 



G. 

Gardner and Gardnerism (1855), 61, S3, 
214, 225. 232, 243, 334. 

Garrison, William Ijloyd. and the Garri- 
sonians, 28, 29, 38, 73, 118, 191, 199, 366, 
367, 46!», 484 ; biography of, 482. 

Gaston, William, 387, .393. 

Gettvsburg, battle of, 294. 

Gidiiings, Joshua R., 35, 183, 184, 187 
(.see Free-.Soil partv). 

Gifford, Stephen N., 105. 

" Gilbei-t " letters (see Tribune, New- 
York, Appendix B.). 

Gilmore, Q. A. (of New Hampshire), 113. 

Gladstone, Wilh.ani E., 369. 

Goddardl). A. (.see Advertiser, Boston). 

Graham. Rev. John, 9. 

Grant, Ulysses S., 109; election to the 
presidency, 120, 130; review of his 
iirst term. 354; his re-election, 136, 
354; comparison between him and 
Greelev, 355; prospects of a third 
term, 385, 392, 397; biography of, 
479, 

Graves, John W. {see Free-Soil party). 

Grav, William, and the Boston city elec- 
tion of 1S71, 349. 

Greeley, Horace, liomination to the 
presidency, 135, 136; comparison be- 
tween him and Grant, 355; biogra- 
phy of, 475. 

Grier, Judge, 510. 

Griffin, J. Q. A., 126, 437, 530; biography 
of, 485. 

Gubernatorial votes from 1860 to 1870, 
summary of, 339. 



H. 

Hale. Charles, 214, 218. 

Hal.', John P., 30. 

Hallett, B. F., 191, 194, 207. 208, 248, 4.')9. 

Haniilton-hall meeting (1873), 141, 143, 

144. 
Hamlin, E. L. (of Ohio), 184. 
Harrison campaign, 19, 242. 
Harrison, William Henrv, the first Whig 

President, 19. 
Harvartl College, style of printing their 

order of e.xercise's (1871), 351 ; opposed 

to woman-suffrage and co-education, 

559. 



Haven, Bishop Gilbert, 16; acquaint- 
ance and controversies with " War- 
ringtsn," 121, 127, 494; position in 
Butler campaign, 132, 134; obituary 
on "Warrington," 177; biography 
of, 492. " ' ' *" ^ ' 

Hawley, Joseph R., 119, 561. ' 

Ilavvthome, Nathaniel, 21, 66, 

Hayden, Lewis, 72. 406. 

Hayes, J. K. {see Shadrach, rescue of). 

Hazewell, Charles C, 17, 44, 57, 63, 70, 
83, 89, 187, 211. 283, 496; obituary of 
" Warrington," 173. 

Hendricks, Thomas A,, 322, 323. 

Heywood, George, 6, 

Higginson, Col. T. W., 297. 

Hildreth. Richard, 01. 

Hillard, George S., 243. 246. 

Hoar, Sanniel, 16, 38, 194. 

Hoar, E. Rockwood, 20, 29, 35, 132, 134, 
185, 427. 559, 561 ; biography of, 490. 

Hoar. George F., 147, 155; biography of, 
491. 

Homneopathy and allopathy, 330. 

Hoosac Tunnel and the lobby, 326. 

Howe, Dr. Estes, 86, 152. 305. 

Howe, Dr. Samuel G., 47,60, 62, 247, 304, 
358 ; biography of, 487. 

Humiliation of M.assacluisetts, 192. 

"Hunker," definition of, 283 (see Peo- 
ple's party). 

J. 

Jack.son. William, 432. 

•Jarvis, Dr. Edward, 9, 11. 

Jerry rescue, 46. 

Johnson, Andrew, prospects of his ad- 
ministration, 305, .306; his presiden- 
tial tour, 311-315; impeachment of, 
315, 317, 321. 

Journalism, 54. 4 

Jury Bill, debate on, 214. 



K. 

Kansas, relief of, 75, 84, 217. 

Keyes, Edward L., 37, 185. 

Kevcs, John, 14. 

Kinsley, E. W., 124. 

Know-Nothing party (1854), character 
and action of. 63, 92, 214, 218, 226, 
302, 526 (see Wilson, Henrj'). 



Larcom, Lucy {see Lowell Offering). 

Lawrence, Abbott, 204, 501, 529. 

Lawrence, Amos A., 257. 

Lawjers and doctoi-s, 51, 53, 3.30, 331. 

Liberty party, 28, 38, l.'i3, 483. 

Lincoln, Abraham, nomination of, 91, 95, 
241; election of , 93, 245; his t.alk of 
" saving the Union," 278; Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation, 2t<0; re-election 
of, 109, 301; assassination of. 111, 
304 ; biography of, 498 {see Appendix 
F), 



584 



INDEX, 



List, Charles (see Coinmon wealth). 

Lobby indueuce and log-rolling in the 
legislature, 320 {sve Hoosac Tunnel). 

Locofoco party, 22, 2!), 184. 

London, LeltcT from, 3GS. 

Loring, Edward G., Judge, action iu the 
ttu-ns cas«, C2, 206, 20!*, 209; re- 
moval of, 210, 227, 2:53, 413. 

Loring, George 1$.. 2.')0 ; biography of, 499. 

Lovejoy, J. C, 72, 183. 

Lowell American, 42. 52, 55, CO; selec- 
tions from, 187-202, 547. 

Lowell Courier and Journal (1842), 25, 
31, 37, 

Lowell Gft'ering, editors and writers of, 
28, 29. 

Lunt, George, 243, 246, 248, 254, 200, 

Lyman, Joseph (see Commonwealth). 

M. 

Mafnt, Rev. John Newland, 27. 

Manchester (N.H.) American (1845), 20. 

Mann, Horace, 47, 194, 487; biography 
of, 501, 

Manomet (near Plymouth, Mass,), 125, 
313, 

Man-stealei-s, The,4G, 47, 62, 189, 

Manual of Parliamentary Law, " War- 
rington's," 155, 

Mason and Slidell at Fort Wan-en, 272, 

Masonry. " Warrington's" oijposiiion to, 
13, 362. 

May, Samuel J., 39, IIG. 

McClollan, George B., 109, 276, 277, 290, 
302. 

Meade, Gen. George G., 295. 

Medical and other jargon, 330. 

Mexican war, 30. 

Middlesex club, .'JM, 

Middlesex-county convention (1842), 28, 

Miles, Kev. George \)., 151, 

Missiiuri Couiproniise, 92. 

Monitor, Concord, N.ll. (1864), 113. 

Monroe, George 11., 17, 135, 340, 078, 393; 
obituary on " Warrinjjcon," 175. 

Morrill, Lot M., .025, 

Motley, Tlioiiiius, 4.'^9. 

Munroe, William, 11. 

Murray, John, and Walter Balfour, 16. 

N. 

Nasby, Petroleum V., 57. 
Nesniith, John, 120, 
Norfolk Advertiser (Dedham, 1837), 17. 
Northami)ton water-cure, 158, 
Noyes, Samuel B,, 17. 

o. 

Old editors, review of, 496. 
Ohio electiou of 1875, 394. 

P. 

Palfrey, Dr. J. G.,38, 47, 204, 232, 416, 517, 
643. 



Paris, Letter from, 371. 

Parlier, De.xter F., 230, 

Parker. ,Ioel, 2.''3, 28G, 

Parker, S, I), (see Burns, rendition of). 

Parker, Theodore, 10. 40, 62. 199, 206, 207, 
210, 222; biography of, 506. 

Pecker, James (.sv-e "Cogswell family), 
will of, Appendix A. 

People's party, 2s4. 

" People's Union," 219. 

Personal-liberty Act, 55, 93; defeat of, 
232. 

Petigru, Justinian (see Political Situation 
in 1875). 

Philli|is, Stephen C, 29, 30, 47. 232, 482, 
517, 543 ; biography of, 505 (see Free- 
Soil party). 

Phillips, Wendell. '16, 62. 71, 93, 98, 111, 
130, 131. l;i9, 206, 207, 443, 444, 463, 
481, .502, 517 ; biogi-aphv of, .502, 

Phoenix, John (George IL' Derby), 23,57, 
534, 

Pierce, FrankUn (President), 197, 543. 

Pierce, llenrv L., 85, 80, 104, 221, 

I'illsburv. Parker, 199, 484. 

Pitman, Robert C, 2.30, 3.35, 

P, L. L. partv (a liquor org.anization), 
115, :n:x,3ii, 421. 

Police, State, history of, 330, 

Political hi>torv in" 1801-62, 287-; from 
ISOs to ls71,"322-.".30, 333, 3.i9, 343, 348; 
situation in 1874, 3)<0-3S0; in 1875, 
o^0-.'!90; predicted situation in 1876, 
396 399, 

Polter,'Uobert K,, 124. 

Pritchard, Lieut,-Col. B. D. (Fourth 
Michigan), 110. 

Prohibitory Liquor Law, " Warring- 
ton's " opposition to, 115; history or, 
333. 

R. 

Radical Club, 461, 506, 

liantoul, Uobert, 193, 194, 488; biogra- 
phy of. 512, 

Red pat li, .lames. 248 ; obituarj- on " War- 
rington," 1.53, 

Reform party, the coming (1876), ,396. 

Republieaii, Boston Daily, 39. 42, 60; se- 
lections from, 1S5, 180, 505, 

Republican, Concord (.we Yeoman's Ga- 
zette), 

Republican party, 69; conventions of. 
63; comes iiito power (1802), 102; 
naming of, 2.'!.'!; predicted clfect of 
(iraufs rc-olcetiou on, 357; status 
in ls74, .'{so-iisc; predictions concprn- 
iiig its coiiliniiaiiee in power, 384, 
3.'*."i. .381! ; •• reform inside llie party" 
(1875). 387, 'J'Xi (sn- reform parly)." 

Republican, Springtield (sec " Waning- 
ton " letters, and Bowles, Sanmel). 

Reynolds, Rev. Griudall. remarks at 
•' Warrington's" funeral, 169. 

Ripley, Dr., 2, 7, 14, 15, 66, 560. 

Ripley, JMi-s. Samuel, 4!tl, 

Robinson family, history of, 2. 

Robin.son, Elbridgo Gerry (brother of 
" Wai-rington '), 17; biography of, 
614 (see Appendix L>). 



INDEX. 



585 



Robinson, John P.. 32. 
Robinson, William S. (see ' ' 'Warring- 
ton"). 
Rockwell, Judge Juliu.s, 509. 
Rodman, Lieut.-Col., death of, 293. 
Rome, letter from, 371. 
Russell, George R., 206. 
Russell, Thomas, 299, 428, 433. 



s. 

Salary Grab, pamphlet wiitten in 1873, 
141 (see Butler. B. F:). 

Saltonstall, Leverett, 95, 243. 

Sanborn, F. B., reminiscences of "'War- 
rington," ix; 71, 121, 144, 147, 248; 
obituary of '• Warrington," 172. 

Schouler, 'William, 22, 25, 28, 31, 32 ; biog- 
raphy of, 527. 

Schurz, Carl, reasons for supporting 
Greelev, 355; inflation platform in 
Ohio, .394 ; dinner given to, 395 ; first 
visit to Boston, 544. 

Scott, James (see Shadrach, rescue of). 

Scott, Gen. Winfield, 9G, 2G9. 

"Secesh joint " in the steamship Missis- 
sippi, 97. 

Secret societies, rascalities of, 218. 

Sewall, Samuel E., 193, 200, 432. 

Seymour, Horatio, 323 (see Democratic 
party). 

Seward, William H., 232, 242, 276, 417, 
624. 

Shadrach, rescue of, 46, 71, 191. 

Sharkev, the unjust judge, 531. 

Shaw, Col. Robert G., Ill, 293, 297. 

Shillaber, B. P. (Mrs. Partington), 57, 
147 ; biography of, 530. 

Sims case (1.S51), 46, 192, 193. 

Slack, Charles W., 106, 379. 

Smith, Genitt, 404, 519. 

Smith, Thomas P. (see Shadrach, rescue 
of). 

Social Circle (Concord), 3, 4, 74, 76. 

Southern literature, 211. 

Spolford, R. S.. 309, 444. 

Spooner, William B., 61, 335. 

Springfield Republican (see Republican) . 

Squatter sovereignty, 92, 230. 

Stansbury, E. A. (see Free-Soil party). 

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 426. 

State constabulary (l.s60), history of, 336. 

Statesmen and politicians, distinction 
between, 346. 

Stearns, George L., 94, 106, 299; biograr 
phy of, 522. 

Stebbings, Ensign Jehiel (the typical 
Ijolitical trimmer), 57; how he re- 
ceived the vote of Maine, 244, 338, 
538 ; biography of, 533-541 ; his plat- 
fonn, 535; Shabbakin Stebbings 
Club, 539. 

Stebbings calculation on woman-suf- 
frage, 117. 

Stewart, A. T., 435. 

Stone, F. M., 1.38. 

Stone, Lucv,463. 

Stowe, William, 104, 121 : biography of, 
525. 

Straight-Republican party, 64, 86, 87, W, 



220; fate of, 222 (see Know-Nothing 
party). 

Stump-speaking inaugurated in New 
England, 20. 

Sumner, Charles, his position in the 
antislavery cause, 30, 40, 91, 184, 232; 
election to Congress. 55, 194, 220, 433; 
acquaintance witli " Warrington," 
56; speaks against rendition of 
Bums, 62; assaulted in the Senate, 
65, 216; his confidence in Lincoln, 
280, 284, 306 ; opposition to him, 283 ; 
elected for the third time, 120, 126; 
letter to him from "Warrington" 
(1872), 351; position in Butler cam- 



reminiscences of, 400, 402; biogra- 
phy of, 517. 

Sumter, Fort. 05. 

Supreme Judicial Court, 509 (see "Wheel- 
grease, Judge). 

Swan, Dr. Caleb, of Eaaton, 221, 223, 429. 

Sweetser, T. II., 345. 

Swift, John L., 206. 308, 420, 428. 



T. 

Tarbox, John K., 393, 422. 

Tavlor, Charles H., 137, 359. 

Taylor, Zachary, 35, 45, 186. 

Telegraph, Boston, 61; selections from, 

210-213. 
Texas, annexation of, 29, 30. 
Thayer, Adin, 126. 
Thayer, Eli, 92. 
Thayer, William S., 85. 
Thomas, Seth J., 192, 193, 208. 
Thompson, Charles P., 391. 
Thoreau, Henry D, 1, 12, 21, 67. 
Thoreau, John (father), 65, 68. 
Thoreau, John (son), 12, 21. 
Tilden, Samuel J., 394-306. 
Tithingmen, when abolished, 15. 
Tocsin (a campaign paper in 1861), 93, 

94, 98. 
Toombs, Robert, 214. 
Torrey, Charles T., 25, 26. 
Train, Charles R., 20. 
Transcendentalists, The, 16. 
Traveller consolidation, 83, 84. 
Tremont-temple mob, 247. 
Tribune, New- York, "Gilbert" letters 

in, 82; "Warrington" letters in, 

99, 114; selections from, 225, 247-252 

(see Greeley, Horace) , 



u. 

"Union-saving," 96. 
Universalism (see Murray, John). 

V. 

■Van Buren, Martin, 35, 39. 
■Viiginia Peace Commission, 94. 



586 



INDEX. 



w. 

Waitt, Caleb, 104. 

Warland, John II. (see Manche!>ti'r 
Anieripaii). 

Warner, Oliver, 114. 

War of tlio nhclliin), opening of, flr>; 
battle of IJiill Klin, %, 2U7; review 
of, 10.<;-11'2, 2.-.v:;0l; 8tate of the 
country in l.s(il, 2j3; pur|)ose of, 2,")S; 
spirit of the pcoiile dining, 201 ; 
progress of, 271 ; landing at Beaufort. 
271 ; " in war-time," 277 ; battle ol" 
Antietam, 25-0. 2n3; Emancipation 
Proclamation, 280-2.10; battle of Get- 
tysburg, 2!)4 ; Fort Wagner and the 
Fifty-foiu-ih, 290; end of tlie tbiid 
year" of, 2'.ni; South Carolina's po-^i- 
tion,.3i)n; end of the war, 304. 

Warren, William Wirt, 340. 

"Warrington," ancestry, 1-7; liow re- 
lated to K. W. Emei-son, 3; connee- 
tion with Phillips and Cogswell 
families, 4; birth (1S18), 7; early 
characteristics, 8; hoyliood, S-ll; 
e.arly education, 8; a "composition, 
9; opinion of a college cihication. 
10, 11 ; school-life, 11 ; first antislave- 
ry reading, 13; attends Ids ilrst 
convention (anti-Masonic), l.'J; en- 
ters a print ing-ofliee, U; youth. 15- 
24; church-going, l.">; works '' at the 
case" for his Inollier in Dedhain, 
and writes his lirst .arliclo, 17 ; editor 
of the Yeoman's Gazette in Con- 
cord, 18; .abolition opinions.];); Whig 
delegate to Baltimore Convention of 
1840, 19; character of his news- 

gaper, 21; sells it (1842), and writes 
is " last words," 22; becoiivs assist- 
ant editor of the Lowell Courier 
and Journal, 25; .a Washington cor- 
respondent, 25; opposition to the 
" Tcxius iniquity," 2!); edits the Man- 
chester (N.H.)" American. 29; takes 
full charge of the Courier. 31; liLs 
appearau<'0 and characteristics in 
1840, 32; las prospects in ls4s, 3.">; 

J)osition on the slavery question, 30; 
eaves the Courier, and becomes 
editor of the Boston Republican, 
37; first acquaintance with Sanniel 
Bowles, 38; marriage. 40; leaves the 
Republican, and becomes editor of 
tlie 1-owell American, 41, 42.44-52; 
home-life, 48; sickness, 60; his opin- 
ion of the law, 53; of journalism, hi ; 
elected to the legislature of 1852, 
64; connection with the CarpetrHag. 
67; connection with the New-York 
Evening Post, 58 ; pecuniary troubles, 
68; death of Lowell American, 00; 
becomes editor of Boston Cominon- 
■wealth and Telegraph. 00; his oppo- 
sition to the Know-Nothings. 03; 
writes for Fitchburg Ueveillo anil 
Worcester Sjiy, 0.'>, 91 ; returns to 
Concord, C5; "contliiion in life in 
1854-57, 05; his life and ncquidnfc- 
ances in Concord, 00-77; connnences 
"Warrington" letters, 78; manner 
of writing, bOj becomes correspond- 



ent of Xew-York Tribinie (1^57), 
82; "Traveller consolidation," 83; 
"out of work," S."); writes " Boy- 
thurn" letters, and for the Congro- 
tioMMlist ;ni(l Zion's Herald. H\; edits 
•■ Sliaighl Itepublican," s7; removes 
to Maiden. 87; death of his son, 87; 
clerk of counnission on revision of 
statutes, 88; offcreil situation on 
New-York Tribune, 89; writes for 
the r.ee. 91; lettei-s on "Squatter 
Sovereignty." 92; opposition to Vir- 
ginia Comnnssion, 94; eilits cam- 
paign papers, and writes pamphlets, 
iC, 98; earlyopiinonson the war, i»6; 
" out of work'" again (1801). 98; writes 
for the Atl.inlic .Monthly, m, 131; 
price received for letter, 99; declines 
asking for an olliee. 102; elected 
clerk of the Massachusetts House of 
l!(>;>r<'sentalives, 102-lO.j; ins salary, 
101! ; writes for Connnonwealth, loii; 
secretaiT of l.'epuliliean .state Com- 
nnttee from 1K03-I8i;8, 107, 112; pre- 
sented with gold watch and chain, 
112; re-elected clerk, 113; starts the 
Concord cN.H.) Monitor, 113; urged 
to become eandiilato for secretary 
of state. 114; connection witli the 
JSprinj^liehl Kepubliean, 114, ll,->; 
opposition to prohibition, 115; posi- 
ti(ui on woman-suffrage question, 
110-119; edits the Hartford Courant 
(180s), 119; o[)inion of (Ininfs elec- 
tion. 120; reception on his liftieth 
birth<lay, 120; his time of power, 
V17)\ his sea-shore resort. 125; per- 
sonality of his writings, 120; contro- 
ve)-sies"with Bishop llaven, 127; his 
opinion of his own labors, 127; do- 
mestic life while clerk, 128, 130; per- 
sonal appearance in l.'-C.'>-1807, 128; 
writes lirst review of Wendell Phil- 
lips in the Butler campaign, 131 ; his 
light against Butler, 131-144 (.see 
Butler, B. F.) ; signs call for Cincin- 
nati Convention (1872), 135; letter to 
Charles Sumner on i)olitieal situa- 
tion in 1872, 354 ; opinicm of Greeley's 
nomination, 135; his health (in 1872), 
130; defeated as clerk of tlie House, 
1.17-140; his .account of the causes 
of his defeat, .T)9; employed on the 
Boston Journal, 1 10; writes the " Sal- 
ary Grab," 141 ; defeats Butler the 
seeonil time, 143; his he.-ilth at the 
end of the campaign, 144; his silver 
wedding, 144; sails for Europe, 148; 
life abroa<l, 149; his health on his 
return, l.')! ; "out of work " again, 
144; premature obituaries, l.')2; pub- 
lishes his Mainial of I'iiriianientaiy 
Law. 155; at the Northampton 
water-cure, 157; progress and char- 
acter of his dise.xsc, 1.5!1-100; a favor- 
ite poem, 10:1 ; his belief in immor- 
tality, 102; his strange visions. 104; 
his own view of his health. 105; bis 
death, 105; memorial tributes, 107- 
180. 
'Warrington" letters first appeared, 
38; nom declaim, whence chosen, 



INDEX. 



587 



79; history and character of, 78-101 ; 
price paiii* for, 90 ; attempt to alter 
them, 100; coined into Boston Com- 
monwealth, 107 ; selections from, 
183, 2U-L'li5, 227-247, 251-304, 308- 
354, 359-0G8, 380-405 (see Appendix 
B). 

Webb, Setli, jun., 17. 

Webster, Daniel, position in the Free- 
Soil movement, 30, 187, 189, 190, 191, 
195, 257; political death and apos- 
tasy, 45, 46, 196, 197, 502; juvenile 
movement for, 195; as a politician, 
' 347; reminiscence of, 404; biography 
of, 515. 

Wells, George D,, 230. 

Wheelgreaso, Judge, liis first appear- 
ance, 55s ; his opinion on the woman 
question, 554. 

Whig, Boston Daily (see Republican, 
Boston). 

Whig party (in 1842). 28, 29, 30, 47; and 
the coalition, 198-205, 432; letter to 
the Whigs, 21)1. 

Whiting, ReV. l.yman, 436. 

Whiting, William, 14. 

Whittier, John G., 37, 38, 47, 146, 531 (see 
Free-Soil party). 

Wilmot, David, 187 (.?ce Free-Soil party). 

Wilson, Henry, position in the Free-Soil 
movement, and among the Whigs, 
20, 29, 41, 4r,, 50, G3, 93, 204, 232; in 
the Butler campaign, 1.33 ; letters to 
" Warrington," 41, 93. 139. 14G; rem- 
iniscence's of, 400, 405; biography of, 
541. 

Winthiop, Robert C, 30, 194, 231, 232, 



238, 248, 309, 415, 416, 429, 483, 489. 517, 
529. 

Wise, Henry A., 27, 298, 524. 

Woman's antislavery society (Concord), 
members of, 73. 

Woman-sulfrage, 11; a reform, 40, 44; 
petition fir.st presented to the logisla- 
tureof Massachusetts (18.53), 110,403; 
" Warrington's " position in regard 
to, 116-119, 420; calculation concern- 
ing, 117; Gov. Andrew's suggestion 
concerning " anxious and aimless " 
women, 110; gain in l^ngland, 370; 
woman's sphere, .547 : suffrage ,1 
right, 51S-554; v/omen Themselves to 
decide the question, 549; free play, 
551: argumcnt.s .against, refuted, 550, 
551 ; can women hold judicial office? 
Judge Wheclgrease's oiiinion on 
(1871), 554; Harvard College against 
suffrage and co-education, 5.59: 
woman's independence in 1776 and 
1870, 5G1 ; the cause gaining, 563. 

Wood, Fernando, 250. 

Wood, Rev. Horatio (of Lowell), 9. 

Woodbury, Charles Levi, 346. 

Worcester Convention (1848), 183. 

Wright, Elizur, GO, 72, 83, 94, 184, 185, 273, 
305, 418. 

Y. 

Yeoman's Gazette (Concord, 1839), 14, 18, 

20, 21, 25. 
Young, John Russell, 86. 
Young men of 1875, opinions of, 390. 



L 7'U 



1- ■' ; 



014 012 923 9 



